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STUDIES IN COMPARATIVE LITERATURE { 



THE ENGLISH HEROIC PLAY 



-y^y^ 



THE 

ENGLISH HEROIC PLAY 



A CRITICAL DESCRIPTION OF THE RHYMED 
TRAGEDY OF THE RESTORATION 



BY 



LEWIS NATHANIEL CHASE 

INSTRUCTOR IN ENGLISH IN INDIANA UNIVERSITY 
SOMETIME TUTOR IN COMPARATIVE LITERA- 
TURE IN COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY 




THE COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY PRESS 

THE MACMILLAN COMPANY, Agents 
LONDON: MACMILLAN & CO., Ltd. 

1903 

All rigliis reserved 






Copyright, 1903, 
By the MACMILLAN COMPANY. 



Set up, electrotyped, and published September, 1903. 



J. S. Gushing & Co. - Berwick & Smith Co. 
Norwood, Mail., U.S.A. 



PREFACE 

This essay was submitted in partial fulfilment 
of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of 
Philosophy at Columbia University. A study 
of the English tragic drama of the latter half 
of the seventeenth century falls naturally into 
three parts : first, a critical survey of the 
plays with the object of determining the type ; 
second, an inquiry into foreign origins and 
parallels ; third, a history of the type in Eng- 
land, the occasion for its introduction, and the 
causes and stages of its decline. 

The second and third of these parts, the 
research for which has already in large measure 
been done, I have reserved for future publica- 
tion. The present thesis is a partial introduc- 
tion to this more comprehensive work, and 
deals closely with the most famous genre of 
the period, commonly called the heroic drama. 
Broadly speaking, the adjective " heroic " in its 
connection with Englisli dramatic literature 



vi PREFACE 

would be applicable to many plays of the early 
seventeenth century (with particular appropri- 
ateness to those in which there was an infusion 
of Spanish ideals of love and honor), and also 
to some eighteenth century tragedies in which 
the dramatic modes of the immediately preced- 
ing ages were faintly reflected. But in the 
strict sense, the term " heroic play " refers to a 
short-lived kind of drama which arose in the 
reign of Charles II, and disappeared at the 
dawn of the following century. The plays 
were called heroic partly because they were 
written in heroic verse. The heroic manner, 
however, without changing its own nature, 
irregularly broke through the couplet with 
which it was primarily identified, and toward 
which its relation was always arbitrary and arti- 
ficial. It was thus much more than a matter 
of form. It was concerned with plot ; it dic- 
tated characterization ; and it permeated with 
a certain sentiment the dramatic types with 
which it came in contact. The present essay 
considers the plot, characterization, and senti- 
ment of the rhymed plays of the Restoration 
under this larger interpretation; consequently 
the discussion, although limited to rhymed 



PREFACE ' vii 

plays, extends substantially to the whole man- 
ner of Restoration tragedy. 

The main study is nevertheless strictly 
limited, in intent, to an examination of the 
type in its extant examples in literary texts. 
It does not enter upon the question of sources, 
nor of stage presentation, nor of historical 
development. It aims simply to describe the 
matter of the heroic play, much of which is 
rare and generally inaccessible, if not for- 
gotten; and to furnish with this description 
a careful analysis of its structure and psy- 
chology such as will establish common traits. 
It is designed for special students of Restora- 
tion drama, and differs from preceding accounts 
in that it treats practically the entire body of 
the rhymed plays of the Restoration as a whole, 
and not as the work of individual writers. 
The rhymed plays of the leading dramatists of 
the period have been discussed in all biographies 
and critical estimates of their respective authors. 
But as Dryden was not only the central figure 
of the time, but also the foremost writer of 
heroic plays, the great mass of comment on the 
kind, with copious illustrations from his dramas, 
is to be sought under a Dryden bibliography. 



yiii PREFACE 

Johnson, Scott, Saintsbury, Gosse, Garnett, and 
Beljame are some of the chief authorities, not 
to mention numerous others of reputation, who 
have considered the subject incidentally and in 
part. Holzhausen alone, I believe, has written 
at length on Dryden's heroic plays. Genest 
mentions a greater number of heroic plays in 
more detail than any other writer, and Ward's 
standard history notes the best of them and 
contains a valuable summary on the species. 
To these authorities and to other commentators 
on Restoration literature I desire to express an 
indebtedness the extent of which the Index and 
footnotes indicate. 

The standard editions of D'Avenant, Ether- 
idge, Dryden, Crowne, Otway, and Lee have 
been used, and the first editions of the other 
dramatists (in some instances the only editions), 
of which there is a large number in the Columbia 
University Library. I am glad to take this 
opportunity to thank the Librarian and his 
Assistants for their unfailing courtesy, which 
facilitated and made pleasanter my labors. My 
friend and associate, Dr. Horatio Sheafe Krans, 
rendered me assistance by suggestions and 
proof corrections which were of great value 



PREFACE « 

and for which I thank him. But to Professor 
George Edward Woodberry my obligation has 
been constant, and my appreciation of his 
kindly services is greater than can be ex- 
pressed here. For a period of many years 
he has been my friend and master. He sug- 
gested this study to me, and throughout its 
evolution, in matters of general design and 
of minute detail, his constant interest and 
advice have been of the greatest aid. 

L. N. C. 
Columbia University, August 15, 1903. 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER I 

PA«K 

Definition 1 



CHAPTER II 
Plot 7 

CHAPTER III 
Character 42 

CHAPTER IV 
Sentiment 112 

CHAPTER V 
General Traits 161 



APPENDIX A 

Relation retween the Heroic Plat and the 

Opera 196 

xi 



CONTENTS 



APPENDIX B i 

PAGE i 



A Brief Survey of Three Heroic Plats in Out- 
line, AS CONTRASTED WITH ShAKESPEARE . . 213 



APPENDIX C 
Burlesque of the Heroic Play .... 228 

APPENDIX D 

A List of Plays written partly or wholly in 
Heroic Verse, together with Representative 
References. 1656-1703 232 

Index 245 



THE ENGLISH HEKOIC PLAY 



THE ENGLISH HEROIC PLAY 

CHAPTER I 

THE DEFINITION 

The heroic play employs as its characteristic 
verse form the pentameter rhyming in couplets 
or triplets or alternately, and uses besides 
various lyrical metres, and also blank verse and 
prose. Triplets are scattered throughout the 
entire body with noticeable frequency, and 
without obvious reason except, possibly, for the 
sake of varying the monotony. Their presence 
on the printed page is usually marked by 
brackets, and in some plays — perhaps rather 
in some writers — their large number leaves 
the impression of a mannerism of style. Their 
use does not serve so much to vary the form as 
to intensify the rhyme. There are, however, 
rare instances of a fine appropriateness to the 
subject and a consequent heightening of poetic 

B 1 



2 THE ENGLISH HEROIC PLAY 

effect due to their presence, as notably in the 
charm scene of the second act of " Henry III." ^ 
A line of less than ten syllables is sometimes 
employed. Thus the favorite metre of the 
" Siege of Rhodes " 2 ig a line half the length of 
the pentameter. This form is repeated infre- 
quently in later plays, although the use of it 
and of other broken lines is one of the evidences 
of Dry den's maturing mastery of versification; 
in other writers it is hard to decide whether 
the form is introduced through carelessness or 
for intentional variety. The numerous songs 
interspersed throughout the text are written in 
the conventional seventeenth century metres. 
Prose was considered as peculiarly the language 
of comedy, and in plays of that sort the even- 
ness of the tone is maintained by that form. 
The more serious or lofty scenes of comedy, 
when not in prose, are occasionally in rhyme, 
generally in blank verse. 

The presence of the heroic couplet has always 
been deemed, from Dryden's notes to the most 

1 " Henry the Third of France stabb'd by a Fryer with 
the Fall of the Guise." By Thomas Shipman. 1678. 

2 "Siege of Rhodes." By Sir William D'Avenant. 1656. 
This was the first edition, but subsequently the play was 
changed and enlarged. See Appendix C. 



THE DEFINITION 3 

recent authorities, the sine qua non of an heroic 
play. "Heroic or rhyming plays" they have 
been called repeatedly, and without arousing 
discussion. Dry den, Rymer,i and Genest 2 have 
framed or indorsed this conception and have 
made it perfectly clear. It is legitimate to 
maintain this definition, and a sense of preci- 
sion and a desire for a certain unity prompt 
its adoption here ; else the term " heroic play" 

1 If other sources of information were wanting as to a 
definition of this species at the time of its popularity, 
Rymer's words would be of great weight, because he speaks 
with the authority of a schoolmaster, with a pedant's fondness 
for precise statement. In the Advertisement to " Edgar; or 
the English Monarch," 1678, he says, " This I call an Heroick 
Tragedy, having in it chiefly sought occasions to extoll the 
English Monarchy; and having writ it in that Verse which 
with Cowley^ Denham^ and Waller^ I take to be most proper 
for Epic Poetry." A heroic play, therefore, must be in 
rhyme, and the use of the words "extoll " and "epic " mean 
that it shall be in the exalted manner proper to heroes of 
romance. Incidentally, Dry den's usual phrase is " Heroic 
Play"; Langbaine's, "a Tragedy writ in Heroic Verse"; 
whereas " Heroic Tragedy " which has become equally with 
"Heroic Play" the common designation for this kind of 
drama, is on the title-page of only one composition of its 
class, and that is "Edgar." 

2 " At this time any Tragedy written in rhyme was con- 
sidered as a heroick play." — John Genest, "English 
Stage. Some Account of the English Stage from the Resto- 
ration," etc., 1832, i. 223. 



4 THE ENGLISH HEROIC PLAY 

becomes a matter of sentiment entirj^ly divorced 
from all form, its nature changed through 
dissipation, and its boundaries extended to a 
time as yet undetermined. Ward's phrase, 
" heroic tragedy in rhyme," which would have 
been thought a tautology in the seventeenth 
century, indicates the growing sense of the 
possibility of a discussion of the heroic; ele- 
ment apart from rhyme ; and in his criticism 
of " Heroick Love," ^ he breaks away from the 
established tradition. "This play, though 
written in blank verse, may so far be regarded 
as a signal example of ' heroic ' tragedy, that its 
whole action tends to turn on the one passion 
of love — the ' universal passion,' truly, of the 
tragic dramatists of this period." ^ Unfortu- 
nately a determination of the nature of heroic 
love — considerable contribution as it would be 
— would not exhaust heroic sentiment. 

Yet it must be admitted, that if only such 
plays as are wholly in rhyme are to be regarded 
as heroic the number is too small to account 

1 " Heroick Love, or the Cruel Separation." By George 
Granville, Lord Lansdowne. 1698. 

2 A. W. Ward, " A History of English Dramatic Litera- 
ture to the Death of Queen Anne." A new and revised 
edition (1899), iii. 424. 



THE DEFINITION 6 

for the furore they made in their own genera- 
tion. The term must have been applied to 
plays partly so written ; but such an admis- 
sion weakens the force of the definition. Un- 
less it can be shown that in a play containing 
prose, blank verse, and rhyme, the last named 
has a function distinct from the others, then 
the limitation of rhyme in the definition must 
be regarded as arbitrary. But, as a matter of 
fact, the function of rhyme is not evident ; or, 
to be bolder, there are numerous passages in 
several plays that make the conclusion un- 
avoidable that the use of any one of the three 
forms just mentioned rather than any other, 
particularly the choice between blank verse 
and rhyme, is accidental and capricious. The 
candid author of " Great Favourite " gives the 
true state of the case : " 1 will not therefore 
pretend to say, why I writ this Play, some 
Scenes in blank Verse, others in Rhyme, since 
I have no better a reason to give then Chance, 
which waited upon my present Fancy ; and I 
expect no better a reason from any ingenious per- 
son, then his Fancy for which he best relishes." ^ 

1 "Great Favourite, or the Duke of Lerma." By Sir 
Robert Howard. 1668. To the Reader. 



6 THE ENGLISH HEROIC PLAY 

An inspection of the play itself, which is 
mainly written in blank verse, seems to justify 
this remark, especially in the fourth and last 
acts. A strange instance of the mingling of 
forms is found in the " Destruction of Troy." ^ 
This play, which also is mainly in blank verse, 
breaks into couplets so irregularly that it seems 
as if the author were uncertain, when he began 
a line, whether it would end in a rhyme or not. 
The " Sacrifice" ^ is another example of the indis- 
criminate use of the three forms. The search 
for system is nowhere more interesting and no- 
where more futile than in " Marcelia." ^ Dry- 
den's versification has been pretty thoroughly 
investigated, especially the growth of his tech- 
nical skill. The mixed passages of blank verse 
and rhyme in which his irresolution and un- 
certainty are displayed further illustrate the 
absence of any fixed usage in the employment 
of rhyme as a necessary element in the heroic 
play. 

1 " Destruction of Troy." By John Bankes. 1679. 

2 " Sacrifice." By Sir Francis Fane. 1686. 

8 "Marcelia, or the Treacherous Friend." By Mrs. F. 
Boothby. 1670. 



">s 



CHAPTER II 

PLOT 

The heroic element in Restoration drama is 
in itself tolerably distinct and easily ascertain- 
able wherever found, at least in its early 
phases. Its introduction into English dra- 
matic literature was an innovation, and from 
the first so dominated certain theatrical pro- 
ductions of many sorts that, whatever their 
genre, they became, in fact, heroic plays. 
Yet this element was not from the first, nor 
ever after, peculiar to any single dramatic 
form, but inserted itself into them all in vary- 
ing degrees and with varying success. It 
worked its way into the opera, comedy, tragi- 
comedy, history, and tragedy of the day, with- 
out altering their respective moulds, no matter 
how it affected their tone. 

The origin of the English heroic play and 
of the English opera was simultaneous. The 
" Siege of Rhodes " has been called, and with 
7 



8 THE ENGLISH HEROIC PLAY 

reason, the first heroic play ; and with reason, 
also, it has been called the first English opera. 
That is not to say that it is completely one 
or the other ; but toward both it stands, if 
as nothing more, "in an indistinct relation 
of parentage." ^ The author styled it an opera, 
and thus introduced a new word into the lan- 
guage. ^ In so far as it contained singing or 
chanting, as part of the action, not extraneous 
to it, the " Siege of Rhodes " was legitimately 
operatic. In paying unprecedented attention 
to scenery and pageantry (crude as it was in 
these respects in comparison with its successors), 
it began in England the tradition, which had 
long been in force on the Continent, that the 
spectacle was a necessary operatic feature, dis- 
tinguishing tlie opera hardly less than vocal mu- 
sic from drama proper. So Langbaine says of 

1 Ward, iii. 328, where the phrase is applied only to opera. 

2 His reason for using the word seems to have been almost 
entirely commercial, without much consideration of fitness. 
It was necessary to hoodwink the Puritan police authorities 
in order to give the production. Modern parallels are com- 
mon. " Long after he had dismissed the music and produced 
regular tragedies he adhered to the word opera, the use of 
which had enabled him to steer his bark in ' ticklish times.' " 
— Joseph Knight, Historical Preface to John Downes, ' ' Ros- 
cius Anglicanus," etc., 1886. 



PLOT 9 

" Circe " ^ ; " The Scenes and Machines may- 
give it a Title to that Species of Dramatick 
Poetry, call'd an Opera." ^ It is almost need- 
less to state that this tradition, in spite of 
impecuniousness and consequent bareness of 
operatic productions from time to time, has 
been continuous. 

The " Siege of Rhodes " is heroic in that it 
is written in rhyme, partly in heroic couplets ; 
it has a war background ; it is a story of love, 
with its usual ingredient of jealousy and of 
honor ; ^ and it contains argumentation in 
verse.* That the opera and the heroic play 
should have first manifested themselves in 
England precisely at the same time in the 
same production is curious, and appears almost 
accidental ; but this fact linked their names 

1 "Circe." By Charles D'Avenant, LL.D. 1677. 

2 Gerard Langbaine, "An Account of the English Dra- 
matick Poets," etc., 1691, p. 116. "The machines were as 
essential to opera as the music and poetry, and the artists 
of the scenery and dresses were at least the equal of the 
poet and musical composer." Dry den's Essays, edited by 
W. P. Ker, i. Ixv-lxvi. 1890. 

8 " Well calculated to please when Love and Honour were 
the order of the day." Genest, i. 39. 

* Scene between Solyman and lanthe in Act 3, Pt. 2, 
and between Solyman and Koxolana, Act 4. 



10 THE ENGLISH HEROIC PLAY 

together far more closely than events justi- 
fied, for it was not the operatic features that 
made the piece heroic, or vice versa. There 
are many heroic plays in which such features 
are wanting ; and so the statement that the 
kind " always retained some tinge " of the 
opera, ^ is not strictly warrantable. They were 
essentially different in kind, and the former 
could be independent of the other. Their re- 
lationship, however, was intimate. 

It is to be remembered, first, that in this 
period music took its permanent abode in the 
theatre. Henceforth, the playhouse and the 
music-house were to be one and the same. The 
English people had always been rich in folk- 
songs ; but these, like the ballads, which were 
their nearest literary counterpart, were unrec- 
ognized among the learned, and homeless, ex- 
cept in the common heart. Music fared better 
than its sister art under the Commonwealth, 
principally perhaps because of Cromwell's lik- 
ing for it ; but on the Restoration it seems to 
have been recognized for the first time as a 
necessary adjunct to the theatre. " A regular 

1 George Saintsbury, "Life of Dry den," English Men of 
Letters Series, p. 18. 



PLOT 11 

band of musicians was placed in the orchestra, 
who, between the acts, performed pieces of music 
composed for that purpose and called act-tunes ; 
and also accompanied the vocal music sung on 
the stage, and played the music of the dances. 
Music thus became attached to the theatres, 
which from this time became the principal nurs- 
eries of musicians, both composers and perform- 
ers. The most favorite music was that which 
was heard in the dramatic pieces of the day ; and 
to sing and play the songs, dances, and act- 
tunes of the theatre became a general amuse- 
ment in fashionable society."^ Doubtless this 
attention to the art of music in public places 
encouraged its practice among the people. 
Pepys's passion for it is typical. The recent 
revival of interest and consequent investigation 
of music of this period have revealed a knowl- 
edge and mastery, among amateurs, hitherto 
unsuspected, while there were professional per- 
formers of world fame, native musicians of the 
first rank, and Purcell, probably England's 
most distinguished and most remarkable com- 
poser. There is good evidence that skill 
in technique steadily improved from the cor- 
1 George Hogarth, " Memoirs of the Opera," 1851, i. 78-79. 



12 THE ENGLISH HEROIC PLAY 

onation to the end of the century. ^ This 
increasing popularity and cultivation of the art 
were shown in all sorts of theatrical perform- 
ances. The opera and the heroic play arose 
simultaneously with this interest, — the first 
essentially musical, and the other capable of 
assimilating operatic features without losing 
its character. They were both produced on 
the same stage, by the same people, ^ for the 
same audience ; thus their intimate connection 
on the external side is manifest. The resem- 
blance, however, is more than external, for in the 
second place both forms are written in rhyme ; ^ 
but whereas the former in its purity is entirely 
in heroic couplets, the latter is in a variety of 
metres; and whereas the former was an impor- 
tation avowedly introduced into England to 
please the king, operas are in rhyme to enhance 

1 " All this while play-house music improved yearly, and is 
arrived to greater perfection than ever I knew it." — James 
Wright, " Historia Histrionica," 1699. 

2 Cf . Hogarth, i. 143 ff . , for the names of some actors who 
were also singers. Among them were Harris, Mountfort, 
Mary Davis and Mrs. Bracegirdle. 

3 " The libretto of an opera is a peculiar kind of drama 
entirely in verse and set to music, and partly in prose to be 
spoken." — A. Hennequin, "Art of Playwriting," 1890, 
p. 49. 



PLOT 13 

the lyric effect and to facilitate the singer's 
execution. When an opera is mainly in pen- 
tameters, as Dr. Charles D'Avenant's " Circe," 
it indicates the influence of the heroic play upon 
the other form, as this kind of verse is in itself 
but ill suited to operatic uses. 

The third likeness between the two is that 
the matter of both is love. But here again the 
difference in source makes more patent the dif- 
ference in kind. Love in the heroic plays was 
an exotic that never existed anywhere, least of 
all in England, and was put into dramatic form 
to please and appease the same people that read 
the current romances ; while love was then and 
always the main subject of the opera, not pri- 
marily because it reflected a transitory fashion 
(although one is not easily distinguishable from 
the other as shown in Restoration art, so per- 
vasive was the heroic quality), but rather be- 
cause love is of all the passions the one for 
which music is the most natural voice. ^ 

The union of the heroic and the operatic was 
a natural, and not, in the main, a contradictory 
alliance. As much cannot be said of the meet- 
ing, within the same play, of the heroic and the 
1 See Appendix A. 



14 THE ENGLISH HEROIC PLAY 

comic. The heroic characteristic of exalted 
sentiment is opposed to the spirit of comedy, 
most of all to the comedy spirit of the Restora- 
tion. And yet at the very outset of its career, 
it entered comedy, for the " Comical Revenge," ^ 
1664, was " the earliest regular play in which 
the use of rime was actually attempted, unless 
its isolated application by Dryden in two pas- 
sages of 'Rival Ladies,' 1663,2 be taken into 
account. Etheridge therefore was courageous 
enough to carry out in a regular comedy the 
innovations which D'Avenant had employed in 
an 'operatic' entertainment, and on behalf of 
which Dryden had argued. "^ 

The comedy of this era was the most rigidly 
defined of all the current dramatic types. It 
began early in the sixties, and although its 
brightest lights did not shine for upwards of 
thirty or forty years, it early reached a mature 
and self-contented state. Considering the vast 
body of plays it embraces, the term, "comedy 
of manners," is a peculiarly adequate and satis- 

1 " Comical Revenge, or, Love in a Tub." By Sir George 
Etheridge. 1664. 

2 " Rival Ladies." By John Dryden. 1664. 
8 Ward, iii. 444. 



PLOT 15 

factory designation. Nothing could be more 
anti-heroic either in intent or practice. To 
satirize the foibles of the age was its object; 
but neither with satire nor with foibles, nor 
with any particular age was the heroic senti- 
ment of Restoration drama concerned. And 
as for diction, the " comic dramatists, with the 
exception of a very few experiments, confine 
themselves to the use of prose." ^ Well defined 
and, in general, strictly adhered to as the sepa- 
ration between comedy and tragedy was, the 
gulf between the comic and the heroic manner 
was even wider; for whereas there is at least 
one contemporary comedy in blank verse,^ one 
in rhyme is yet to be discovered ; ^ the presence 
of rhyme, moreover, was accompanied with suf- 
ficient change in the treatment of the subject- 
matter, if not in the subject-matter itself, to 
render the title " comedy," as it was then used, 
inappropriate. 

1 Ward, iii. 498. 

2 " Married Beau, or the Curious Impertinent. " By John 

Crowne. 1694. 

3 Certain French comedies were translated into Enghsh 
rhyme ; and although the greater part of serious scenes in 
Restoration comedy, not in prose, are written in blank verse, 
some are in rhyme. 



16 THE ENGLISH HEROIC PLAY 

The heroic element, when introduced into 
comedy, had a more revolutionary effect than it 
had upon any other type. To the opera, it was 
not, on the whole, antagonistic, and tragedy was 
its home. It transformed comedies into some- 
thing different, usually called tragicomedies ; 
but whereas comedy was a firmly established 
form, tragicomedy has always been a make- 
shift term, brought into more or less use ^ 
according to the narrow or liberal interpreta- 
tion of the two types which it has sought to 
blend. It has been described as a species " re- 
sembling the regular Tragedy in its outward 
form, but containing some comic characters, 
and always having a happy termination ; " ^ and 
also referred to as that "mixed species which 
came to be called (but by no consistent usage) 
tragicomedy y ^ Genest says, that " Ormasdes " * 
was "called a T. C. as no person is killed, but 
there are no comic scenes, — the whole is seri- 
ous."^ There are three so-called tragicomedies 

1 There were more than fifty plays of this class from 1656 
to 1703. 

2J. W. Donaldson, "Theatre of the Greeks," 1860 
(seventh ed.), p. 75. » Ward, i. 210. 

*" Ormasdes." By Sir William Killigrew. 1665. 

6 Genest, x. 139. 



PLOT 17 

with an heroic element : " Amazon Queen," ^ 
"Rival Ladies," and " Marcelia." The first is 
entirely, the others partly, in rhyme. " Mar- 
celia " and " Rival Ladies " contain distinct 
comic characters and incidents, but no more so 
than " Altemira" ^ and "Fatal Jealousie," ^ which 
were called tragedies. The " Comical Re- 
venge," with no designation on the title-page, 
was considered a comedy by contemporaries — 
Evelyn, Downes, Langbaine ; but Ward * takes 
pains to use the prefix. Dry den himself styled 
the "Rival Ladies" a tragicomedy; but he 
called " Marriage-a-la-Mode " ^ a comedy, which 
Langbaine thus takes exception to ; " This play, 
though stil'd in the Title-page as Comedy, is 
rather a Tragicomedy, and consists of two 
different actions; the one serious, the other 
Comick." 6 He is followed by Genest. 

The form of drama called histories, so nu- 
merous in the Elizabethan era, were exceedingly 

1 " Amazon Queen, or the Amours of Thalestris to Alex- 
ander the Great. " By Jo. Weston. 1667. 

2 " Altemira." By Roger Boyle, Earl of Orrery. 1702. 
8 "FatalJealousie." By Henry Neville Payne (?). 1674. 

♦ Ward, iii. 498 n. 

6 " Marriage-a-la-Mode. " By John Dry den. 1673. 

* Langbaine, p. 166. 

c 



18 THE ENGLISH HEROIC PLAY 

and significantly rare in the last half of the 
century. There seem to have been no more 
than four so styled, of which two are heroic 
plays. There is nothing in either of them that 
would prevent their being placed under the 
head of tragedy, as tragedy was then interpreted. 
This applies the more strictly to "Charles 
VIII," 1 whereas the claim of "Henry V "2 for 
consideration under any recognized dramatic 
type would be easy to disprove. It has none of 
the characteristics of Restoration comedy; its 
tone is more serene and unperturbed through- 
out than that of any other tragedy, if such it be, 
while the much-abused historical novel, in its 
most untruthful phases, is a slave to fact in 
comparison with this play in indebtedness to 
historical truth. It is doubtless because of the 
mere frequent mention of historic figures and 
events, regardless of most amazing twistings of 
fact and additions of fiction, that these plays 
were called histories. 

The authors did not always please to desig- 
nate the kind of composition on the title-page 

1 "The History of Charles the Eighth of France, or the 
Invasionof Naples by the French." By John Crowne. 1672. 

2 "The History of Henry the Fifth." By Roger Boyle, 
Earl of Orrery. 1669. 



PLOT 19 

of the play or elsewhere. This omission seldom 
causes confusion, because the term " tragedy " 
was applied liberally, not to say inconsistently on 
the whole, or rashly. Sometimes the writer 
uses the term where the critic seems surprised 
at its use. Thus Genest remarks of the '' Lib- 
ertine " ^ : "As there is Superabundance of 
murder in this play it is called a Tragedy, but 
the dialogue is in great measure Comic." 
The obvious construction of Langbaine's com- 
ment on the application of the term to the 
" Black Prince " ^ is that he considered such use 
uncommon. " Tho this Play in the Title-page 
be call'd a Tragedy, yet it ends successfully: 
and therefore I presume was rather stiled so by 
the Author from the Quality and Grandeur of 
the Persons in the Drama, than from any un- 
fortunate Catastrophe." There were indeed 
two forms of tragedy, the main difference de- 
pending on the fortunate or unfortunate ca- 
tastrophe. " The Tragedy ends Prosperously," 
says Rymer in the Advertisement to his own 
play, " Edgar " : ''A sort of Tragedy that 
rarely succeeds ; man being apter to pity the 

1 " Libertine." By Tliomas Rhadwell. 1676. 

2 " Black Prince." By Roger Boyle, Earl of Orrery. 1669. 



20 THE ENGLISH HEROIC PLAY 

Distressed, then to rejoyce with the Prosperous. 
Yet this sort seems principally to have pleased 
Euripides ; and is necessary here." 

Investigation shows, however, that tragedies 
with happy ending were neither uncommon or 
unsuccessful. Tragedy was the natural abid- 
ing-place of the heroic element. With comedy 
it was unsympathetic ; its relation to opera was 
appreciably accidental ; but in tragedy it was at 
home. So closely and yet rightly are they 
associated that the terms "heroic play" and 
" heroic tragedy " have always been used 
without discrimination. The " Quality and 
Grandeur " of heroic characters was peculiar to 
no other form than tragedy. In fact all phases 
of heroic diction and sentiment might be read- 
ily construed as appropriate to tragedy. The 
presence of the heroic element did not alter or 
disturb the main drift of the tragic form which 
includes an unhappy termination. Up to that 
time unhappy catastrophe had been so much 
the rule as to be commonly considered essential ; 
but in the heroic element, as such, there was 
nought to necessitate such an ending. It 
might, perhaps, be insisted upon that an 
unsuccessful termination is out of accord with 



PLOT 21 

the hero's character, where frequently the suc- 
cess of marvellous actions justified the usual 
accompanying boast. There were nearly as 
many heroic tragedies of prosperous conclusion 
as of the other sort ; and this large number 
might reasonably be attributed to the presence 
and influence of the heroic element. 

The " Conquest of Granada " ^ is the most 
illustrious of this kind. The fall of the city 
is not the main matter, but rather the deeds 
of Almanzor ; his success is literally the most 
prolonged of any in English dramatic literature, 
by five acts, as the play is in ten. Generally, 
of course, it is easy enough to distinguish be- 
tween a happy and an unfortunate conclusion ; 
but occasionally there is chance for difference. 
In the " Conquest of China " ^ there is a " super- 
abundance of murder," yet the murdered are 
all villains and the righteous survive. Where 
the principal character is a villain, in the end 
he is usually punished ; but in such cases 
much depends on the importance of other char- 

1 "Almanzor and Almahide, or the Conquest of Granada 
by the Spaniards." By John Dryden. 1672. 

2 "Conquest of Chma by the Tartars." By Elkanah 
Settle. 1676. 



22 THE ENGLISH HEROIC PLAY 

acters, and to what extent he is preeminent over 
them. Richard Ill's fate is not so fraught with 
tragic consequences in the " English Princess " ^ 
as in the Shakespearean play. In the latter, the 
leading interests are his character and his re- 
lation to England, so his death is more deeply 
and widely significant than in the former where 
the sole theme is love ; Richard is the unsuccess- 
ful suitor for the princess's hand, and his fortu- 
nate rival is Richmond ; his death removes the 
obstacle to their marriage. Perhaps the ter- 
mination of the " Rival Kings " ^ is on the whole 
fortunate, and still one of the surviving heroes 
exclaims : 

" We purchase pleasure, almost with despair." 

In " Edgar," likewise, although the principal 
lovers survive, their joy is hardly conceivable, 
so dearly is it bought. It should be ob- 
served that the chief traits of the modern melo- 
drama, which are exaggerated sentiment and a 
happy termination after dire misgivings, were 
first popularized in the heroic tragedy. 

1 "English Princess or the Death of Richard III." [By- 
John Caryl] 1667. 

2 " Rival Kings, or the Loves of Oroondates and Statira." 
By John Bankes. 1677. 



PLOT 23 

It is mainly as tragedy, therefore, that the 
heroic play is to be regarded. The pattern 
came from France directly with the many 
borrowings of the Merry Monarch. There was 
then no judgment exercised as to the suita- 
bility of the imported articles for native use, 
but everything French was brought into Eng- 
land wholesale, at random, and without reason. 
The native character of the importations was 
so ill comprehended that the foreign taste in 
drama was no less ridiculous than in clothes, 
and quite as extensive and obvious. There 
is fashion in plays as well as clothes, Dryden 
says ; and just as the summer Parisian styles 
did not reach London, in those days of slow 
communication, until winter, and yet as soon 
as they came were donned straightway regard- 
less of the season, as one of the comedies 
states, just so the French form of tragedy was 
welcomed in England, with rhyme, but without 
reason, and though it soon drifted away in 
spirit from its origin, it remained to the end 
foreign, exotic, un-English. 

The imitation of the French manner in the 
heroic play was manifested most considerably 
in the construction of the plot. It is not a 



24 THE ENGLISH HEROIC PLAY 

question of where the stories came from in the 
first place, but how they were handled after 
their introduction into England. As laziness 
occasioned, according to Shadwell ^ the borrow- 
ings from France, so absence of originality or 
of any deviation from what was considered 
the French manner is the most noticeable 
characteristic of the external form of heroic 
plays. 

The real unlikeness, however, between the 
genuine French manner and what was consid- 
ered as such in England should be borne in 
mind. It is not surprising that French senti- 
ment and spirit in contact with the English 
should undergo transformation. Imitation, 
nevertheless, is most patent in the technical, 
almost manual labor of playwriting. But 
even here allowance is to be made for cer- 
tain discrepancies between the original and the 
imitation, arising fundamentally from the dif- 
ference in the genius of the two peoples. 

The French manner, as it was interpreted, 

was formulated into a code of precise rules so 

minute, and withal so comprehensive, that any 

sign of originality on the part of the aspirant 

1 Preface to the " Miser." 



PLOT 25 

for dramatic honors would seem superfluous 
and out of place. These rules were readily 
conned and applied, else there would not have 
been so many plays put on the boards. That 
Dry den produced six in one year, and Settle 
wrote " Cambyses " ^ when he was eighteen, 
shows the easiness of the feat. 

The first and foremost of those rules was 
regard of the three unities. With a very few 
exceptions 2 all heroic plays observe them, or 
more correctly, there is no tangible evidence to 
the contrary. Complete silence on the subject, 
either within the text or elsewhere, regarding 
the time supposed to have passed between the 
first and last act, makes judgment difficult. 
Still, it may be assumed, when the unities of 
action and place are observed and nothing is 
said about the time, that the last, also, is re- 
spected. It is the only one that seems to cause 
the authors embarrassment.^ Generally, direct 
mention of it is avoided ; sometimes a queen 

1 " Cambyses, King of Persia." By Elkanah Settle. 
1671. 

2 " Henry III." " The Scene Blois remov'd at tli' Fourth 
Act to the Camp at St. Clou before Paris." In " Marcelia " 
the scene is at Lyons and Marseilles. 

8 As in " Henry III," Act 2. 



26 THE ENGLISH HEROIC PLAY 

asking the king for permission to occupy the 
throne for three days,^ and the not uncommon 
crowding of more than one battle into the time 
given, perhaps justify the conclusion that the 
time-limit may have been extended beyond 
twenty-four hours ; but, even so, the strict 
observance of the other unities suggests the 
probability of a liberal interpretation here 
rather than a wilful breach. ^ Observance of 
unity of action w^as responsible for the general 
sameness of tone, which implied the restriction if 
not the exclusion of the comic ; and the unity of 
action once in force, the others follow naturally. ^ 
The following quotation from Langbaine shows 
the current deference toward the unities and 
also the difficulty of getting the mass of the 
people to appreciate correctness : 

" I must say this for our countrymen. That 
notwithstanding our modern authors have 
borrow'd much from the French, and other 

1" Siege of Memphis, or the Ambitious Queen." By- 
Thomas Durfey. 1676. 

2 Now and then attention is called to the strict observance 
of them all, as in the Prologue to the ' ' Maiden Queen ' ' and 
the statement prefixed to " Edgar " : " The time of the Rep- 
resentation from Twelve at Noon to Ten at Night." 

3 Thomas Rymer, " The Tragedies of the Last Age," etc., 
1678, p. 24. 



PLOT 27 

nations, yet have we several Pieces, if I may 
so say, of our own manufacture which equal at 
least, any of our neighbours productions. This 
is a truth so generally known, that I need not 
bring instances to prove, that in the humour of 
our comedies, and in the characters of our 
tragedies, we do not yield to any other nation. 
'Tis true that the unities of Time, Place and 
Action, which are generally allowed to be the 
Beauties of a Play, and which the French are 
so careful to observe, add all Lusture to their 
Plays ; nevertheless several of our poets have 
given proof, that did our Nation more regard 
them, they could practice them with equal suc- 
cess : But as a correct play is not so much under- 
stood, or at least regarded by the generality of 
Spectators, and that few of our Poets now-a-days 
write so much for Honour as Profit, they^are 
therefore content to please at an easier rate.''^ 

Jacob's criticism of Granville's " Heroick 
Love" notes his observance of the "strictest 
rules of the ancient drama." 

"A Tragedy acted at the Theatre Royal 
with great applause. This play is one of the 
best of our modern Tragedies. His Lordship 
has observed the strictest rules of the ancient 
Drama; the Action is single, the Place not 
varied, nor the Time extended beyond Aristotle's 
Bounds ; the whole being transacted in the 

1 Gerard Langbaine, " Momus Triumplians," etc., 1688. 
Preface. 



28 THE ENGLISH HEROIC PLAY 

same Camp, and requiring no more hours than 
are barely necessary for the Representation. 
He has, perhaps, too industriously avoided that 
crowd of Incident which the English Stage 
seems to demand. His Lordship has likewise 
broke through that long established Custom of 
Stabbing and Murdering upon the Stage, not one 
actor being represented as dying in the sight of 
the Audience, which gave occasion to some Crit- 
icks to except against it as Tragedy ; as if 
the fatal and unavoidable necessity of an Eter- 
nal separation between two faithful Lovers was 
not a catastrophe sufficiently moving ; or that 
cruel unnatural and bloody Spectacle were the 
Essentials of the Tragedy. His Lordship, in 
this play, seems by his style to have made it his 
chief study to deliver the Tragick Vein from 
all fustian and affected Expressions and to pre- 
serve the Dignity of the Buskin from sinking 
too low or rising too high." ^ 

There are other laws that a tragic poet should 
observe, the greater part of which were ex- 
pressed by Rymer. Indeed, the " Tragedies of 
the Last Age " may be considered as a standard 
text-book on the subject. Here are some of its 
dicta : 

"The Fable is the soul of a Tragedy." 
" The Argument, Plot or Fable for a Tragedy 

1 [Giles Jacob], "The Poetical Register," etc., 1723. 
i. 123. 



PLOT 29 

ought to be taken from History." ^ The Eng- 
lish err in putting too wicked persons on the 
stage. 2 

These are but remnants of a long dramatic 
tradition, and do not pretend to individual 
authorship. It is questionable, however, if 
Aristotle would admit that the idea that in 
poetry all kings are necessarily heroes was 
based on the "theory and practice of the 
ancients." ''Though it is not necessary that 
all heroes should be Kings, yet undoubtedly all 
crown'd heads, by Poetical right,) are Heroes, 
This Character is a flower, a prerogative, so 
certain, so indispensably annexed to the Crown 
as by no Poet, or Parliament of poets, ever to 
be invaded." ^ 

There are, it seems, most binding laws of duel 
in tragedy. 

"If I mistake not, in Poetry no woman is 
to kill a man, except her quality gives her 

1 Rymer, Contents. 

2 Rymer, passiwi. Cf. Jacob's (i. 210) criticism of Raven- 
croft's " Italian Husband " : " This poet seems to be under 
the same Mistake with some other of our modern writers, who 
are fond of barbarous and bloody Stories, and think no 
Tragedy can be good without some Villain in it." 

8 Rymer, p. 61. 



30 THE ENGLISH HEROIC PLAY 

the advantage above him ; nor is a Servant 
to kill the Master, nor a Private Man, much less 
a Subject to kill a King, nor on the contrary. 
Poetical decency will not suffer death to be 
dealt to each other, by such persons whom the 
Laws of Duel allow not to enter the lists 
together. There may be circumstances that 
alter the case, as where there is sufficient 
ground of partiality in an Audience^ either 
upon the account of religion (as Rinaldo^ or 
Riccardo^ in Tasso, might kill Soliman^ or any 
other Turkish King or great Sultmi) or else in 
favour of our country^ for then a private English 
heroe might overcome a King of some Rival 
Nation."! 

Rymer is the laughing-stock of the modern 
critical world — probably the worst critic that 
ever lived, Macaulay bluntly remarks. But all 
that he said is of special and of great signifi- 
cance historically, because it was supposed both 
by himself and intelligent contemporaries to 
rest upon a learned and philosophic founda- 
tion. Dryden, Pope, and Dr. Johnson admired 

1 Rymer, pp. 117-118. T. N. Talfourd's comment on 
this passage is worth quoting : 

" How pleasant a master of ceremonies is he in the regions 
of fiction, regulating the niceties of murder like the decorums 
of a dance, with an amiable preference for his own religion 
and country !" Betrospective Beview, i. 1 (1820), "Rymer 
on Tragedy." 



PLOT 31 

and respected him. Besides giving utterance 
to principles current in his day, he embodied 
them in one of the most correct heroic plays 
ever written, and not only correct but typical 
of many features of plot construction then in 
vogue. That it was almost worthless as dra- 
matic literature in nowise distinguished it from 
many others of its kind. Addison called atten- 
tion to its failure as if that were unique, for it 
never saw the light of day, it was never put on 
the stage, it died as a living play before it was 
born. But neither is that enough to distinguish 
it from the others. That it died young whereas 
the others survived it a few years, and then 
expired, as they all did without exception, does 
not make it different in kind from them. It 
was printed in at least three different years ; 
as much cannot be said of some of its apparently 
more successful rivals. And, after all, Rymer 
and Addison — not to make the generalization 
include others — were alike distinguished critics 
who wrote plays of perfect correctness and 
lifelessness. 

On the whole there was little protest against 
the form of the heroic play, for it was a phase 
of the recognized tragic form of all Europe. 



32 THE ENGLISH HEROIC PLAY 

Yet one author claims that his piece is not 
" dress'd by Rules of Art," ^ and another makes 
a plea for freedom of taste even in the deter- 
mination of types : 

"I must ingeniously confess, that the man- 
ner of Plays which now are in most esteem, 
is beyond my pow'r to perform ; nor do I 
condemn in the least anything of what Nature 
soever that pleases ; since nothing cou'd ap- 
pear to me a ruder folly, than to censure the 
satisfaction of others ; I rather blame the un- 
necessary understanding of some that are not 
Mathematical, and with such eagerness, pursu- 
ing their own seeming reasons, that at last we 
are to apprehend such Argumentative Poets 
will grow as strict as Sancho Pancos Doctor 
was to our very Appetites ; for in the differ- 
ence of Tragedy and Oomedy^ and of Fars it self, 
there can be no determination but by the 
Taste ; nor in the manner of their Composure; 
and whoever wou'd endeavour to like or dis- 
like by the Rules of others, he will be as un- 
successful, as if he should try to be persuaded 
into a power of believing ; not what he must, 
but what others direct him to believe." ^ 

To the statement that " in the difference of 
tragedy, comedy, and farce itself, there can 
be no determination but by the taste, " Dryden 

1 " Fatal Jealousie. " Epilogue. 

2 «' Great Favourite." To the Reader. 



PLOT 33 

answered : *'I will not quarrel with the obscur- 
ity of his phrase, though I justly might ; but 
beg his pardon if I do not rightly understand 
him. If he means that there is no essential 
difference between comedy, tragedy, and farce, 
but what is made only by the people's taste, 
which distinguishes one of them from the other, 
that is so manifest an error, that I need not 
lose time to contradict it. Were there neither 
judge, taste, nor opinion in the world, yet they 
would differ in their natures."^ 

Howard has been censured for both the tone 
and the content of his preface, yet it must have 
been the expression of more than a purely 
personal opinion, at a time when regularity 
was the school cry of the day. 

The rank extravagance of language and of 
character that predominates in so many heroic 
plays does not so frequently belong to the plot. 
The regularity of the plot checks such a ten- 
dency. There are some plays in which much 
takes place, and the course of events seems 
unrestrained. They are obviously the more 
conspicuous, perhaps the more interesting. 
Extravagance in both characterization and plot 
1 Dryden, " A Defence of an Essay of Dramatic Poesy." 



34 THE ENGLISH HEROIC PLAY 

construction makes them more strikingly heroic 
than many others in which the plot is regular 
and stands out in marked contrast to the ex- 
travagance of diction and of character. There 
are yet others wherein all the elements are 
subdued, and where there is little rant or 
fustian, which are, none the less broadly charac- 
teristic of the heroic kind. Such is " Aureng- 
Zebe " ^ ; and because it is nearer the Racine 
manner, calmer, more correct, with simpler 
plot, and characters truer to nature, the super- 
natural machinery omitted, and the dialogue 
not so extravagant, Holzhausen pronounces it 
not typical. ^ 

Such another is "Love's Triumph." ^ No 
play more distinctly shows French influence 
in method of construction. There is much dia- 
logue of a sort that does not advance the action ; 
the situation is revealed in the first act, and 
there is no perceptible progress or change until 
the last, when one of the possible alternatives 

1 "Aureng-Zebe, or the Great Mogul." By John 
Dryden. 1676. 

'"^ Paul Holzhausen, "Dryden's Heroisches Drama," 
"Englische Studien," xiii. 443. 

* " Love's Triumph, or the Royal Union." By Edward 
Cooke. 1678. 



PLOT 35 

takes place. In "Caligula" the mildness of 
the plot is entirely unlike the extravagance of 
the character and sentiment. The time is 
confined to the last hour of the emperor's life, 
and there are long scenes devoid of action. In 
some plays the stage is crowded with incidents 
and characters, in others it is bare ; some plots 
are simple, others complex. 

Love and honor were theoretically the sub- 
jects of heroic plays, and so in one form or 
another the relation between them may be sup- 
posed to have been intended as the leading 
dramatic motive. The shape it assumed varied. 
In all but one of Orrery's heroic plays, friend- 
ship is a form of honor, and they are entirely 
concerned with the conflict between love and 
friendship, the friends being rivals in love. 

A second form concerns four people, — a male 
and female villain, and a hero and his mistress. 
The male villain loves the mistress and the 
female villain the hero, so their alliance is 
founded on selfish interest. The pair of vil- 
lains do all in their power to separate the lov- 
ers, but each villain is determined to defend 
the beloved object from harm, so they work at 
cross-purposes, and meanwhile the lovers are 



36 THE ENGLISH HEROIC PLAY 

safe. In the end both villains are killed by 
opportune interference from outside. 

A third manifestation of the same idea is 
where the female villain becomes infatuated 
with the hero, who is of course already a lover. 
She offers him the choice of reciprocating her 
passion or death. She meets her fate, likewise, 
through external interference that also saves 
him from the embarrassment of a decision ; or 
she may be so successful as to bring about the 
death of his love, and possibly that of himself, 
before her own. 

There are a few instances where the conflipt, 
as to which of the rivals will win the lady, is 
purely physical. Sometimes the subject itself 
is unimportant. " Caligula," ^ for example, is 
mainly an attempted character study, with 
little plot. 

Such are some of the main themes, the raw 
material for a drama. But the essence of a 
play is in struggle, and it is here frequently 
lacking, the issue is evaded. "Henry V" has 
to do with love and honor, and in the case of 
one of the characters there is what passes for a 
conflict between them ; but, such as it is. it is 

1 ''Caligula." By John Crowne. 1698. 



PLOT 37 

personal, individual, not influencing the play 
as a whole. The political and love elements, 
respectively, are not at all connected as con- 
tending for the fate of any character. Henry 
is warrior and lover, but he does not have to 
sacrifice one in order to be the other. As war- 
rior, he has no obstacles to confront; as lover, 
but one (his friend's passion for the same lady) 
which he easily surmounts. There is no dra- 
matic struggle because there is nothing to strug- 
gle against. The king says he will forego his 
crown before his love, but there is not the slight- 
est possibility of such a contingency arising. 
With Tudor, the conflict, whether or not he 
shall be true to his friend and liege rather than 
to his love, is not real. The choice is not in 
his hands. He has been rejected before the 
question arises, and is again ; so the issue is 
actually not whether he will be true to love or 
friendship, as evidently his author and himself 
desire it construed, but rather how manfully he 
will bear up under adversity in love. The real 
struggle has been done away with by the prin- 
cess's preference for the king. Such is also the 
case in " Tryphon " ^ with Seleucus, an unsuc- 

i^Tryphon." By Roger Boyle, Earl of Orrery. 1669. 



38 THE ENGLISH HEROIC PLAY 

cessful suitor who decides to force the object of 
his affection to marry him ; but there is no 
instance of a girl deciding in the first act not 
to marry a man ever after changing her mind, 
or being made to do so. 

Constancy between the principal lovers of a 
play is practically invariable, and although the 
dramatic motive springs from the attempt of a 
jealous third person to win away the love of one 
of them., the initial and paramount error of all 
such persons arises from their belief, taken for 
granted, that the fear of death will induce 
lovers to part, and win them toward other 
loves ; nor would the doing away of one of 
the lovers in any wise make the coast easy 
and clear for his hated rival; as for the 
threat of death, there is no more oft-reiterated 
note in the heroic kind than indifference tow- 
ard or even desire for death. The lovers 
are given the choice of dying together or 
living apart; they decide on the former; but 
it is a matter of words; they are not put to 
the test. 

On the issue of probability there was differ- 
ence of opinion. For its sake, Rymer advo- 
cated adherence to history : 



PLOT 39 

" We generally observe, when one tells of 
an adventure, or but a jest, he will choose to 
father it on some one that is known thereby 
to get attention, and gain more credit to what 
he relates. Besides, many things are probable 
of Antoninus, or of Alexander, and particular 
men, because they are true, which cannot be 
generally probable : and he that will be feigning 
persons should confine his fancy to general 
probability." ^ 

This is one way, and there are some heroic 
plays that did not violate the dictum. On the 
other hand, Dryden ^ differentiated heroic plays 
from other tragedies in that they were not sub- 
ject to the laws of probability. It is by this 
very disregard of necessary sequence that a 
large number of heroic plays differ from genu- 
ine dramas.^ 

There is only one of Dryden's heroic plays 

1 Rymer, p. 17. 

2 His own dramatic irresponsibility is shown by his deem- 
ing it necessary to print for distribution and circulation in 
the audience an explanation of one of his plays, the "Ind- 
ian Emperor," where the play failed to explain itself. 

3 Orrery, when the long letter he inserted in the "Black 
Prince " was hissed, had it printed and copies handed to the 
spectators. The boldest disregard of a necessary dramatic 
sequence, however, is in the "Vestal Virgin," which has 
two last acts, one comic, the other tragic, either of which 
was substituted for the other at will. 



40 THE ENGLISH HEROIC PLAY 

where a single dramatic idea is carried out.^ 
What is to be expected, therefore, of lesser 
men ? Of what consequence in comparison with 
the radical fault of the lack of a single dramatic 
idea, and of total disregard of dramatic respon- 
sibility are all other defects of plot construc- 
tion ? 2 Vain is the search for inherent relation 
between plot and character. A study of the 

1 " Tyrannic Love." Cf. Holzhausen, E. S., xiii. 432. 

2 Such defects are naturally numerous, and some of them 
were first commented on by the authors themselves. Otway 
writes of his first play : "I found myself father of a dramatic 
birth which I called ' Alcibiades ' (1675) ; but I might, with- 
out offence to any person in the play, as well have called it 
'Nebuchadnezzar.'" (Preface to "Don Carlos.") Ward 
likens its plot to a nightmare. 

The weakness of the plot of the ' ' Maiden Queen ' ' is 
suggested in the Preface to that play, and commented on 
by Ward. The same critic speaks of the absence of combi- 
nation of external and intrinsic interest in "Don Carlos." 
The weakness of the plot of " Caligula " is noted by Maid- 
ment and Logan, and that of "Mustapha" by Dry den. 
Jacob calls attention to the plot absurdities in the "State 
of Innocence." 

Notice further the sudden transformation from the usurp- 
ing king to the kindly father-in-law in " Marriage-a-la-Mode," 
the unfortunate title of " Sophonisba, or Hannibal's Over- 
throw," inasmuch as Sophonisba had nothing to do with 
Hannibal's overthrow. In fact, Massinissa, as an ally of 
Scipio, was the chief factor in bringing about Hannibal's 
defeat ; and Sophonisba' s conquest over him took him from 
battle and thus increased Hannibal's chances of success. 



PLOT 41 

plot in Restoration tragedy is a study of exter- 
nals. The raw material was imported and 
manipulated by novices who had a text-book 
knowledge of the subject, without the slightest 
comprehension of the relation between external 
and internal form. 



CHAPTER III 

CHARACTER 

One of the most obvious diiferences between 
the Elizabethan and Restoration drama — a phase 
of the movement toward greater external unity 
— is in the variety of characters. The strongest 
indication that the Restoration plays were to be 
more limited in character range than the earlier 
is that there were fewer characters to deal with. 
Narrow range does not necessarily follow as a 
result of the small number of characters in sev- 
eral plays of the same period, any more than a 
limited vocabulary necessarily implies a con- 
tracted mind. But words beget thoughts as 
truly as thoughts beget words. It is not by 
accident that Shakespeare's wealth of thought 
is expressed in the largest vocabulary ever used, 
and the bare fact that his dramatis personce 
are great in number suggests, if it does not 
indirectly state, that the variety is proportion- 
ately considerable. In Orrery's '•'• Henry V " 
42 



CHAKACTER 43 

there are nineteen names in the cast, in Shake- 
speare twenty-seven (omitting the chorus) ; in 
Caryl's "English Princess, or the Death of 
Richard III," there are seventeen; in the cor- 
responding tragedy of Shakespeare, thirty-five ; 
and in Sedley's " Antony and Cleopatra " ^ 
fourteen, where Shakespeare has thirty-one. 
The average number of speaking characters 
in Restoration tragedy is not more than 
fourteen, not much more than half the usual 
number in Shakespeare. The confinement of 
the character element in the later drama 
within a circumscribed compass is, then, patent. 
Attention is concentrated on a smaller picture, 
and the search for Elizabethan multifarious- 
ness is futile. It is claimed that a limited 
vocabulary possesses a peculiar strength, and it 
might be inferred that the stream of energy 
is the same in either case; that it is merely 
a question whether to allow it to flow over 
a wide expanse or to confine it in a narrower 
channel, thus intensifying its force ; that the 
change from many characters to a less number 
brings about a closer attention, and hence a 

1 "Antony and Cleopatra." By Sir Charles Sedley. 
1677. 



44 THE ENGLISH HEROIC PLAY 

more careful consideration of the remainder; 
that what these characters lack in variety they 
make up in quality. Whether or not in the 
abstract this assumption be permissible, it is 
certainly unwarrantable in its present connec- 
tion. The characters that were drawn, and 
that were in a sense so popular as to be many 
times repeated or imitated, are not compar- 
able to the figures of the older time. 

Did the Restoration dramatists fail in char- 
acter delineation through inability, or rather 
because they had another object in view than 
the painting of men and women, and purposely 
relegated that part of their work to an unim- 
portant place, if they did not disregard it 
entirely? What, in its relation to character, 
was the intent of the heroic play ? Not surely 
to paint men as they are in the flesh ; such 
an assertion was but a form of flattering the 
audience. 

" Tis ten to one but th' Author still will say, 
Your vertues were the patterns of his play ; 
And swear you down, 

His Love and Honour both were stol'n from you ; 
And from your features he his Heroes drew. 
There's ne'er a Comick Writer but will say, 
You're all of you the patterns of his Play ; 



CHARACTER 46 

Yet takes your pictures at so damn'd a light ; 
Paints you so ugly that your looks would fright. 
Why in your hearts may not th' Heroicks share ? 
Those make you worse, these better than you are. 
And flatt'rers sure should not successless prove, 
When those that do abuse you have your love." ^ 

But it was the business of the heroic drama, 
as of other forms of tragedy, to paint men 
"better than they are"; and the distinction 
between the Elizabethan and the later manner 
was not one of observance of the dictum, but 
of interpretation. Hamlet thinks deeper and 
feels more keenly than an everyday man; but 
the operation of his mind and heart is thoroughly 
normal, in that it is perfectly human. In no 
i^egard is it superhuman. In all cases the 
Shakespearean meaning of painting a man better 
than others or superior to others is spiritual 
as opposed to physical and material; the 
accentuation of certain purely human qualities 
is what constitutes the Shakespearean hero ; 
how much land he owns, or how much mus- 
cular strength he has, does not matter. 
There is verbal evidence also of the spiritual 

1 " Ibrahim, the Illustrious Bassa." By Elkanah Settle. 
1677. Epilogue. 



46 THE ENGLISH HEROIC PLAY 

aspect, in Restoration drama, of the elemental 
passions, greatly overcolored, to be sure. 

" Love rages in great souls, 
For there his power most opposition finds ; 
High trees are shook, because they dare the winds." ^ 

It is taken for granted that only in the 

higher spheres of life is the exaltation of 

love and war possible : 

" The lover and the brave 
Are ranked, at least, above the vulgar slave ; " ^ 

and also of prudence and the sense of glory, — 

" Where is that harmony of mind, that prudence. 
Which guided all you did? that sense of glory. 
Which raised you high above the rest of kings, 
As kings are o'er the level of manldnd ? " ^ 

In the last two lines may be found the key to 
the first point of departure from the Shake- 
spearean standard in post-Elizabethan and 
Carolean art, — an attempt at first not so much 
to introduce new features as to magnify through 
exaggeration certain human qualities to an 
extent hitherto untried and unprecedented, 
and soon pushed to the impossible because 

1 ' ' Secret Love, or the Maiden Queen /' By John Drj'^den. 
1668. Act 2, Sc. 1. 

=* " Conquest of Granada," Part 2, Act 4, Sc. 3. 
8 *' Maiden Queen," Act 2, Sc. 1. 



CHARACTER 47 

beyond nature. The extravagance of the 
kiter Elizabethan and early post-Elizabethan 
drama, begun in Shakespeare's own day, sug- 
gests whither things were drifting; but the 
tendency does not appear to have been for- 
' mulated, recognized, and championed as a 
laudable principle till Dryden wrote that " the 
laws of an heroic poem" justified "drawing 
all things as far above the ordinary propor- 
tion of the stage as that is beyond the common 
words and actions of human life."^ Magnify- 
ing all things did not lead to a nicer and subtler 
working-over of old material, but to an ille- 
gitimate introduction of new things ; it encour- 
aged extraneousness, put a premium on the 
irrelevant, and distracted attention from the 
character itself to physical qualities and to ma- 
terial wealth. The idea was old on the Conti- 
nent, but its application was an innovation in 
English dramatic literature. Dryden endeavors 
to justify from history his treatment of physical 
prowess : 

" But we have read both of Caesar, and many 
other generals, who have not only calmed a 
mutiny with a word, but have presented them- 

1 John Drj^den, " Essay ou Heroic Plays." 1672. 



48 THE ENGLISH HEROIC PLAY 

selves single before an army of their enemies ; 
which upon sight of them has revolted from 
their own leaders, and come over to their 
trenches. If the history of the late Duke of 
Guise be true, he hazarded more and performed 
not less in Naples, tlian Almanzor is feigned to 
have done in Granada." ^ 

The physical properties of a hero are marvel- 
lous. He is indeed a full-blooded person : 

" Let the blind Queen of Chance her Envy shew, 
And save thy life by some successless blow ; 
Deny'd all help, and pass'd defence withstood, 

I'll rip my breast, and drown thee with my blood." ^ 

Combating single-handed an army or two is 
but a mild form of pleasant recreation ; and 

" Those few million we've yet vanquish't are 
A bare dumb shew of a poor pageant war." « 

But the strangest feature of his strength is 
that it does not leave the body with death, 
but his ghost continues the even tenor of his 
muscular way. 

" If Souls can fight, I thee to Battle dare. 
And mine shall hence only to meet thee there."* 

1 Dryden, " Essay on Heroic Plays." 

2 " Siege of Memphis," Act 1, Sc. 2. 

* " Conquest of China," Act 1, Sc. 1. 

* ♦' Herod and Mariamne." By Samuel Pordage. 1673. 
Act 5, Sc. 7. 



CHARACTER 49 

"Revenging still, and following ev'n to the other j 
world my blow ; 
And shoving this earth on which I sit, 

I'll mount and scatter all the Gods I hit." ^ ,! 

1 

Worldly possessions as an attribute of majesty ! 

is frequently the opening theme of a play. 

Thus begins Weston's " Amazon Queen " : s 

" 'Tis time our King leave his bold chace of Fame, 

Now nothing more can add to his great name ; ; 

He has no foes like great Darius left, 1 

Whom he of more than half the world bereft." ^ J 

And thus Banks's " Rival Kings " : \ 

" From Ganges, and beyond Nyle's secret Bed, ' 
Strange conquer'd nations have Euphrates spread, 
By Heaven's eternal power ordained to meet 

In the AVorld's center, and its Royal seat. j 

From other Parts whilest succours bend their course, .] 

You bring from Greece, the Foot to re-inforce, ! 

And I from Thrace, five thousand Winged horse. ; 

So the great Sea maintains its swelling Pride ■ 

By lesser streams that thither daily glide ; , 

All things contribute to this mighty King, J 
To Alexander flowing, leave their Spring, 

And aids from the remotest places bring." ^ j 

1 " Tyrannic Love, or the Royal Martyr." By John i 
Dryden. 1670. Act 5, Sc. 1. • 

2 "Amazon Queen," Act 1, Sc. 1. 'i 
« " Rival Kings," Act 1, Sc. 1. \ 



60 THE ENGLISH HEROIC PLAY 

Greater than this is to come : 

" The Conquerours of Persia, Macedon, 
The Lords of Caesars reverence my Throne ; 
Clear from the rising to the setting sun ; 
What Alexander ne'er could reach, I won." 

And he is answered : 

" Sir, from Japan to the Atlantic Main, 
The World lies fetter'd in your glorious chain 
Whose Light and Influence in the Heavens is felt, 
As upon Earth the spangled Milky belt." ^ 

And himself proclaims : 

" Had Ccesar liv'd I had taught that Rebel Peace ; 
And lash'd the stragling Demi-God to Greece^ ^ 

And — 

" The trembling World has shook at my alarms, 
Asia and Africa have felt my arms. 
My glorious Conquests too did farther flye ; 
I taught the Egjjptian god Mortality ; 
By me great Apis fel], and now you see 
They are compelled to change their gods for me. 
I have done deeds, where Heaven's high pow'r 

was foyl'd. 
Piercing those Rocks where Thunder has been toyl'd. 
Now, like our sun, when there remains no more, 
Thither return whence we set out before." 

1 ''Sacrifice," Act 1, Sc. 1. 

2 Ihid. 



CHARACTER 51 

" Otan. Returning thus, Great Sir, you have out-done 
All other glories, which your arms have won. 
Inferiour Conquerours their Triumphs get 
When they advance, but you when you retreat. 

Dar. All Worthies now must yield to you alone, 
And disappear as stars before the Sun. 
Thus Cyrus J who all Asia did defeat, 
Because so near you, does not seem so great. 

Prex. Cambyses, no ; Your Honour there must yield ; 
Your father Cyrus's fame has yours excelFd 
Since in one act he did all yours out-do. 
In leaving such a glorious Son as you." ^ 

But if Caligula be as truthful as he is hopeful, 
he certainly of all rulers had the greatest do- 
main : 

" I reign from Heav'n to hell ; — perhaps beyond. " ^ 

The exaggeration of human qualities and the 
introduction of externals were intended, doubt- 
less, to increase the " illustriousness," as it were, 
of the character ; to make the hero more heroic, 
to delineate him as "perfect pattern of heroic 
virtues," 3 and pattern "of exact virtues."* 
The word " pattern " — anything proposed for 
imitation, or what is itself made after a model 
— thrice employed by Dryden in description of 

1 " Cambyses," Act 1, Sc. 1. 2 u Caligula," Act 4. 
3 Dryden, "Essay on Heroic Plays." ^ Ibid. 



52 THE ENGLISH HEROIC PLAY 

his own creations, indicates the absence of in- 
dividualization ; it presupposes, invites, and 
facilitates the process of classification. There 
was little or no attempt to draw men and 
women, but rather to present abstract human 
qualities. There is further evidence in Lang- 
baine's remark on Orrery's dramatic works, 
where attention is called to the quality depicted 
rather than to the personality of the character. 
In them, he writes, is " true English courage 
delineated to the life." ^ From Otway's words 
also it is plain that the hero was looked upon 
as the embodiment of heroic virtues, and the 
dramatist considered their quality and quantity 
rather than — and at the expense of — per- 
sonality. 

" I durst presume to put this poem under your 
patronage . . . for . . . the might}^ encourage- 
ment I have received from your approbation of 
it when presented on the stage was hint enough 
to let me know at whose feet it ought to be laid. 
Yet, ... I am sensible the curious world will 
expect some panegyric on those heroic virtues 
which are throughout it so much admired." ^ 

1 Langbaine, p. 27. 

2 "Don Carlos, Prince of Spain," By Thomas Otway. 
1676. Dedication. 



CHARACTER 53 

The lack of diversity in the types has been 
contrasted with Shakespearean richness. The 
exuberance of character of the Elizabethan 
stage passed away. The mirror of life held 
up to nature, re-creating the human family in 
all its phases of mental and moral develop- 
ment, of rank and fortune, was exchanged for 
another of different make and for a different 
purpose. The play-scene was robbed of its 
wealth, left poor and comparatively bare. 
Impoverishment was brought about by the 
extensive reduction in the number of charac- 
ters, with its attendant omission of certain 
phases of life exemplified in certain creations, 
and by the transformation or substitution, or 
both, of the remainder. For the stage was 
far poorer than the mere cutting down by 
half, or even more, of Shakespearean characters 
would have left it, if the other half had re- 
mained in nature Shakespearean. Shakespeare 
never duplicates characters. But the Restora- 
tion dramatists frequently copied theirs. The 
characters became conventionalized to such an 
extent as to be but faintly distinguishable one 
from another. This obviously rendered the 
stage poorer than it would have been simply 
through omissions. 



64 THE ENGLISH HEROIC PLAY 

The heroic drama proper admitted no comic 
element and excluded all classes of society 
except the nobility. This wholesale process of 
exclusion did away with the clown in his various 
roles, and all smile-evoking wit ; and under the 
latter head representatives of the people and 
mobs (pageants were retained, but no mobs), 
all trades-people, — in brief, whatsoever in the 
exact sense was uncourtly; and intellectually 
and emotionally, all characters of introspection 
and true passion. ^ 

The leading type of the heroic play may be 
seen in Antony, Richmond, and Henry V., as 
drawn by Sedley, Caryl, and Orrery, but Alman- 
zor is more complete, depicted with greater detail 
and more brilliantly. Therefore a rehearsal of 
his characteristics seems desirable, especially as 
he is the acknowledged example, par excellence^ 
of the kind he represents, — the "echte blume,"^ 
as Holzhausen calls him, of the heroic manner, 
and its " most complete expression in Dryden." ^ 
His first entrance indicates the manner of man. 
The first line shows his entire indifference to 
justice ; he has no idea of right and wrong. 

1 See Appendix B. 2 Holzhausen, E. S. , xiii. 432. 

^ Ibid. XV. 44. 



CHARACTER 65 

The second discloses a desire to relieve the 
oppressed, — a desire, however, without depth 
or catholicity. He rushes on the stage where 
there are two men ready to engage, and sepa- 
rates them with these words : 

" I cannot stay to ask which cause is best ; 
But this is so to me because opprest." ^ 

He next describes a line with his sword and 
forbids trespassing. 

" Upon thy life pass not this middle space ; 
Sure death stands guarding the forbidden place." ^ 

Here is the modern melodramatic hero, — the 
" halt-or-I-shoot " sort. He is dared, kills, is 
disarmed, and threatened with death. He re- 
plies that he scorns life, but denies the right 
of any one but himself to take it away. 

1 " Conquest of Granada," Pt. 1, Act 1, Sc. 1. Cf. " Don 
Carlos" (Act 4, Sc. 1), who, when asked if he will go over 
to the rebels, replies : 

" No, they're friends; their cause is just; 
Or, when I make it mine, at least it must." 

2 Ibid. Perhaps the most familiar illustration of this 
device is the "magic circle" in Bulwer's "Richelieu." 
There is no doubt of its theatrical effectiveness. 



66 THE ENGLISH HEROIC PLAY 

" But know that I alone am king of me, 
I am as free as nature first made man, 
Ere the base laws of servitude began, 
When wild in woods the noble savage ran," i 

and nonchalantly defies the death sentence : 

" Stand off, I have not leisure yet to die." ^ 

He has previously told the king that they 
ought to change positions, — i.e, that he him- 
self should " in nature " have the throne. 

" I saw the oppressed, and thought it did belong 
To a king's office to redress the wrong ; 
I brought that succour which thou oughtst to bring, 
And so, in nature, am thy subjects' king." ^ 

This passage also reveals a leaning to sophistry, 
— to " argumentation in verse," as Dr. Garnett 
puts it, — chronic with Dryden, and common 
among his fellows. 

Almanzor is thus described : 

" Vast is his courage, boundless is his mind. 
Rough as a storm and humorous as wind; 

1" Conquest of Granada," Pt. 1, Act 1, Sc. 1. The 
doctrine of the "return to nature," popularly associated 
with Rousseau, was by no means an uncommon note in 
English Restoration literature. For other instances in prose 
and verse, see Mrs. Behn's " Oroonoko," 1668, passim, and 
Otway's " Don Carlos," Act 2. 

2 Ibid. 8 Ibid. 



CHARACTER 67 

Honour's the only idol of his eyes ; 
The charms of beauty, like a pest, he flies ; 
And raised by valour from a birth unknown 
Acknowledges no power above his own." i 

His courage is indeed vast; it is prodigious. 
He is also humorous as the wind, — capricious, 
admitting no law superior to himself. Honor, 
such as it was, is somewhat in evidence. Prac- 
tically, however, it is about as deep as the 
desire to help the oppressed. But the whole 
description gives a very incomplete picture, and 
the line about running away from the charms 
of beauty is misleading, because it omits the 
very quiddity of the character, if it stands for 
the type, for, above all else, he is a lover. His 
true identity (not his birth) is then made 
known to the king, who revokes the sentence 
and asks his aid. The king addresses his sub- 
jects and is unheeded, whereupon Almanzor 
speaks and all obey his bidding. They do this 
so readily that he has a chance to indulge his 
contempt for the common people. 

" Hence, you unthinking crowd ! 
Empire, thou poor and despicable thing, 
When such as these make or unmake a king ! " ^ 

1 Ihid. 2 iiiia. 



68 THE ENGLISH HEROIC PLAY 

Such is his thought, but the wonder of his 
action impresses the by-standers. 

" How much of virtue Hes in one great soul, 
Whose single force can multitudes control ! " * 

Almanzor bids his new-found friends not to 
worry, because 

" The Moors have heaven and me t' assist their cause." ^ 

He comes on the stage with the Duke of Arcos, 
the Moors' enemy, a prisoner, and says he will 
set him free, in order that he may fight him 
again, for he enjoys fighting. 

" It pleases me your army is so great ; 
For now I know there's more to conquer yet. 

******* 
I'll go, and instantly acquaint the king, 
And sudden orders for thy freedom bring. 
Thou canst not be so pleased at liberty 
As I shall be to find thou darest be free." ^ 

This the king refuses to do, which puts Al- 
manzor in an agreeable mood to hearken to 
Abdalla, the king's brother, and aspirant to the 
throne. 

1 " Conquest of Granada," Pt. 1, Act 1, Sc. 1. 

2 Ibid. 

8 Ibid. Pt. 1, Act 2, Sc. 1. 



CHARACTER 59 

" When I show my title you shall see 
I have a better right to reign than he." ^ 

Almanzor straightway declares himself Ab- 

dalla's friend, and his friendship is like his 

helping the weaker side, it disregards title and 

justice. 

" It is sufficient that you make the claim ; 
You wrong our friendship when your right you name. 
When for myself I fight, I weigh the cause, 
But friendship will admit of no such laws; 

^ ■T^ ^ 'T^ 'y^ ^ yp 

True, I would wish my friend the juster side ; 
But, in the unjust, my kindness more is tried." ^ 

'* For you to will, for me 'tis to obey." ^ 

In the first love scene between the principal 
characters both fall in love at first sight, the 
lover more noticeably, and he is affected in 
the conventional manner. 

" I fear it is the lethargy of love ! 
'Tis he ; I feel him now in every part ; 
Like a new lord he vaunts about my heart ; 

******* 

I'm all o'er love ; 
Nay, I am love ; love shot, and shot so fast 
He shot himself into my breast at last." ^ 

1 Ibid. Pt. 1, Act 3, Sc. 1. 2 jf^id 3 /^j^. 4 jf^i^ 



60 THE ENGLISH HEROIC PLAY 

His behavior in its formalism and elaboration 
would appear to discredit his own words : 

" 'Tis the essay of an untaught first love." ^ 

But it is difficult in more ways than one to 
regard him as he regards himself. 

" But all court customs I so little know," ^ 

he says. Once before he has suggested a like- 
ness between himself and " the noble savage." 
He is a quibbler, and the fact that Aim abide 
is already contracted to Boabdelin disconcerts 
him but a moment. 

" I bring a claim which does his right remove ; 
You're his by promise, but you're mine by love. 
'Tis all but ceremony which is past ; 
The knot's to tie which is to make you fast. 
Fate gave not to Boabdelin that power ; 
He wooed you but as my ambassador." ^ 

She is his captive by the right of war, but he 
disdains to keep her, and declares her free ; 

1 " Conquest of Granada," Pt. 1, Act 3, Sc. 1. 

2 md. Pt. 2, Act 5, Sc. 2. 3 iii^^ 



CHARACTER 61 

and when asked if such action does not show 
generosity but also lack of love, he replies, 

" 'Tis exalted passion, when I show 
I dare be wretched not to make her so ; " ^ 

and that he had rather be entirely wretched 
than half blest while another passion fills her 
heart. 

He next meets Abdalla, and has an oppor- 
tunity to practise the friendship which be has 
already expounded. But when he learns 
Abdalla loves Almahide, all friendship dis- 
appears ; and because Abdalla does not yield, 
Almanzor thinks him ungrateful and himself 
wronged, and so returns to the other side, and 
explains his shifting thus : 

" Great souls by kindness only can be tied ; 
Injured again, again I'll leave your side." ^ 

Almanzor has told Almahide that she is at 
liberty. Just as his behavior belied his prin- 
ciples in loyalty and friendship, so when asked 
again if she is free, he answers, 

" Madam, you are, from all the world, — but me ! " 

1 Ibid. 2 ij^i^^ pt. 1, Act 4, So. 1. 

8 Ibid. Pt. 1, Act 4, Sc. 2. 



62 THE ENGLISH HEEOIC PLAY 

She yields willingly to be his, if she can do so 
with propriety ; but she asks her lover to carry 
himself a little more humbly, with not quite so 
much fierceness. He comforts her by saying 
that he can beg when the time requires, but 
really the time never does require. If, in order 
to make her father perfectly content with the 
match, nothing but a country to rule over is 
wanted, matters can be easily arranged. 

" And if your father will require a crown, 
Let him but name the kingdom, 'tis his own." ^ 

He is but remaining for the time being a 
private man only because he wants to do so, 
for he says he has " that soul which empires 
first began," consequently, 

" The best and bravest souls I can select, 
And on their conquered necks my throne erect." ^ 

He admits he 

" Twice has changed for wrongs received," * 

but defends his haughtiness against his love's 
suggestion to moderate it. 

1 " Conquest of Granada," Pt. 1, Act 4, Sc. 2. 

2 Ibid. 8 Ibid. Pt. 2, Act 3, Sc. 3. 



CHARACTER 63 

" If 1 am proud, 'tis only to my foes ; 
Rough but to such who virtue would oppose. 
If I some fierceness from a father drew, 
A mother's milk gives me some softness too. " ^ 

When it is rumored that Almahide is false 
and the emperor raves, Almanzor assures him 
that a husband's honor is not so important as 
a lover's and that himself has more cause for 
grievance. He questions her constancy, but 
what Dryden would doubtless call his " confi- 
dence of himself " comes to his rescue. 

" She must be chaste, because she's loved by me." ^ 

He still doubts, nevertheless, and is urged 
for his own honor's sake to keep up appear- 
ances. 

" Yet her protection I must undertake ; 
Not now for love, but for my honour's sake 
That moved me first." ^ 

In his way he remains true to Almahide. 
Once he became overbold and was deterred 
only by a threat that she would kill herself. 
" And what is honour," he asks, " but a love 
well hid?" 

1 Ibid. 2 i^i^^ pt. 2, Act 4, Sc. 3. 

8 Ibid. Pt. 2, Act 5, Sc. 1. 



64 THE ENGLISH HEROIC PLAY 

" Praise is the pay of heaven for doing good ; 
But love's the best return for flesh and blood." ^ 

The emperor is killed in battle, Almahide goes 
into a year's mourning, offering hope to Alman- 
zor at its expiration. His birth is discovered, 
and Almahide and a throne await him. 
The author thus analyzes his creation : 

" I have formed a hero, I confess, not abso- 
lutely perfect, but of an excessive and over- 
boiling courage ; but Homer and Tasso are my 
precedents. . . . 

" But a character of an eccentric virtue is the 
more exact image of human life, because he is 
not wholly exempted from its frailties ; such 
a person is Almanzor. ... I designed in him 
roughness of character, impatient of injuries, 
and a confidence of himself, almost approaching 
to an arrogance. But these errors are incident 
only to great spirits ; they are moles and dim- 
ples which hinder not a face from being beau- 
tiful, though that beauty be not regular. . . . 
And such in Almanzor are a frank and noble 
openness of nature, an easiness to forgive his 
conquered enemies, and to protect them in dis- 
tress ; and, above all, an inviolable faith in his 
affection. . . . Heroes should only be judged 
by heroes, because they only are capable of 
measuring great and heroic actions by the rule 
and standard of their own." 

1 " Conquest of Granada," Pt. 2, Act 4, Sc. 3. 



CHARACTER 65 

The dramatist concludes, indirectly asking 
the reader to believe that Almanzor does not 
fail in any " point of honour," and that " he 
fulfils the parts of personal valour, and of con- 
duct of a soldier and of a general." ^ 

It should perhaps be added in justice to 
Dryden's dramatic feeling that later in life he 
repented him of this character.^ Even at this 
time he was not nearly so mightily impressed 
with him as he would have the detractors 
believe. He was conscious of insincerity, which 
is amusingly suggested by his confession as to 
the true nature of Almanzor's bravery. " After 
all," he says, " the greatness of the enter prize 
consisted only in the daring, for he had the 
king's guards to second him." ^ 

Love is the main theme of all heroic plays, 
and the sole theme of many. All major and 
most minor characters are lovers. A considera- 
tion of them as such is the only one that the 
playwright permits himself. The hero is always 
a warrior, but the martial element is made so 

1 Ibid. Dedication. 

2 "Spanish Friar, or the Double Discovery." By John 
Dryden. 1681. Dedication. 

3 Dryden, "Essay on Heroic Plays." 



66 THE ENGLISH HEROIC PLAY 

unimportant that nought but the lover re- 
mains. Lack of complexity and of individual- 
ization makes a citation of several characters 
unnecessary. It is, indeed, in this lack of true 
characterization and interest in other passions 
than love that the absence of Shakespearean 
variety is manifested quite as much as in the 
entire omission of certain forms. A description 
of the leading character of a Shakespearean play 
answers no other ; but Almanzor is well-nigh a 
complete embodiment of all the qualities that 
the corresponding figures of other heroic plays 
possess. 

The general statement may be qualified to a 
certain extent by a treatment of the villain, 
because the individuals of the type differ from 
one another more than individual heroes differ 
from each other. As an indication of the 
greater stress put upon love than upon ambi- 
tion, the latter quality, which has been of good 
repute in the actual world of all time, is prac- 
tised and extolled in the heroic drama only by 
the villains. 

" In sluggish Breasts Love's idle frenzy rules ; 
Ambition is the Lust of all great Souls." ^ 

1 '♦ Conquest of China," Act 3, Sc. 3. 



CHARACTER 67 

It is not until the third act that Lycurgus 
asks for an audience to behold his courage, 
savagery, fierceness, and boldness. 

"Ye Gods of China, if you are such tame 
And inoffensive things, as our Priests frame, 
Whose Pious Eares and Eyes and tender Sense 
Delights in nought but Good and Innocence ; 
Draw back your Sun, and vele yourselves in night ; 
I shall Act Deeds, which all weak Eyes will fright. 
But if the Nature of your God-Heads be 
Courageous, savage, fierce and bold like me, 
Heav'n wear no Clouds, and Gods take a full view ; 
Look and admire at what my Hand dares doe." ^ 

In his case, ambition is unalloyed with any 
other passion. He is slave to no woman. 

" Who, but a loving fool, 
Wou'd damn his own to save a woman's Soul"?*^ 

He is one of the very few conspicuous figures of 
the heroic drama that devotes practically no 
attention to them. In him also the desire to be 
a warrior is plainly marked, though the end of 
war is but to achieve power. His very first 
words show his inclination to be head of the 
army rather than of internal affairs. 

" A Gown's not that my soaring wishes want ; 
The Sword had been the more obliging grant." ^ 

1 Ibid. 2 ii)ia. Act 4, Sc. 2. » Ibid. Act 2. 



68 THE ENGLISH PIEROIC PLAY 

When his usurpation of the throne is tempo- 
rarily successful, he says : 

" No ; China's Crown has 'till my Reign been worn 
By lazy Kings, with Female Spirits born ; 
Guarded by Eunuchs, bred in Palaces, 
Nurtur'd in Lusts, the Progeny of Peace ; 
But now's the time, Fate grants the High Command 
Of this Great Empire to a Martial Hand ! " ^ 

There is a slight love element in Melynet's 
life, but it is unimportant. He thus chooses a 
villanous career for the sake of power over the 
king. 

" It is only being blest by Fortune in the end, 
that gives the intention value. That's the 
unjust scale, by which the world weighs all 
things. But why should I condemn ingrati- 
tude as Vice, that for ambition turn a Villain 
and betray my friend? Yet 'tis not I am 
guilty, though I act the Crime; 'tis the abusive 
world which throws such heaps of injuries and 
scorns on wanting Virtue, that mans courage 
cannot bear it ; at least mine shall not, if a 
streach'd conscience will relieve me. 

" I'll grasp a fortune though I heav'n let go, 
That I have heard of, but 'tis this I know ; " ^ 

1 " Conquest of China," Act 5. 

2 "Marcelia," Act 1, Sc. 6. 



CHARACTER 69 

He repents in this manner : 

" Vain joys of mortal Life ! you fly so fast 
Man hardly knows you are before you're past ; 
Yet we on you do our affections lay, 
As if we here eternally should stay. 
Honor, thou now dost give my soul a view 
Of what I left when first I banish'd you. 

Virtue ! how have I bin led astray. 

From thy fair paths, into this Lab'rynth way? 

1 thought my fortune on a rock did stand. 
But Guilts foundation still proves foolish sand^ 
When man by Crimes does plots for greatness lay, 
Heav'n justly frowns and takes his hopes away. 
But though my life bears characters of shame ; 
My death shall leave behind a better Fame." ^ 

Revenge for wrongs and unsuccessful love is 
Jasper's excuse. '' Fatal Jealousie " is, strictly- 
speaking, only partly a heroic play ; the amount 
of rhyme is small, and the character range is 
comparatively large. But Jasper is one of the 
most interesting villains of Restoration tragedy. 
He tells his own story : 

" Capt. For what should move thee to this Villainy ? 

Jasp. For that you will not wonder. 
I am Jasper de Monsalvo, Heir to that Estate 
This Lord doth now possess. 

A nto. Ah Heav'ns ! some of that desperate Bandity 
Did once attempt my life. 

1 Ibid. Act 5, Sc. 8. 



70 THE ENGLISH HEROIC PLAY 

Jasp. Yes truly. ... i 
Anto. Poor Celia, 'tis no wonder thy mind did boad 

Great mischiefs from this Fellow, being Son of ; 

One did still contrive to kill me, for what the ' 

King after just forfeiture for mighty services I 

Had given my Father. 1 

Jas]). O Revenge ! ! 

Thy sweetness takes away the taste of Death. ; 
But you'l lose my story ; which in short is this : 

That Lady lov'd me not, and therefore I 1 

Made her Lord Jealous, took him to a "Witch, | 

And there I fool'd him finely : till the Jade, 1 

Who was my Aunt indeed, at your approach '; 

Would have discover'd all ; which I prevented, | 

And stopt her Mouth with this : Then I contriv'd * 

To kill Eugenia, knowing she would meet j 

Francisco in the Garden ; that I did ^ 

Because she call'd me Villain, and ref us'd j 
To let me Whore her too, as did her Couzen ; 
And more, I knew the simple Lord I serv'd 
When he had murder'd her, as I should make him, 
Would thank my Care, and well reward it too : 

Nay, I'd have him do't for his own safety, '< 

That still the Murder might be thought Francisco's ; i 

You know the rest i' th' Garden. I taught besides i 

That damn'd Old Hagg, whose fear has made me thus, I 

To put this trick on Pedro ; I bid her call him i 

When she should hear us whistle, then in haste, \ 
And all undrest send him to Cello's Chamber, 
Whilst we, let in, might meet him coming thence, 
Thinking the Cuckold's Rage would murder all. 

And never hear 'em speak; but there I fail'd, i 

Their dying words betray'd me, that's the worst, ^ 



CHARACTER 71 

Or I had liv'd to glory in their Deaths ; 
But this my Comfort is, he'l not survive me, 
I have done his bus'ness too before I dye. 

Sew. Was er'e so impudent a Villain seen? 

Capt. lie try to stop his wounds, that so 
I may keep him for Execution. 

Jasp. Stand off, by Hell, 
Pie that comes near me finds his Death v^ith this ! 
Think you I'm grown so tame to dye by Law ; 
No, no I'le not endure a formal Tryal, 
To be upbraided with those things I think 
Deserve a Trophy rather than Contempt, 
Which since I know will follow, here's my bail, 
This will deliver any Man from Jayl. 
Let Cowards dye by hanging ; such as I 
As we live bravely, thus dare bravely dye. 

[Stabs himself:' i 

This account does not even suggest the wit, 
vivacity, and sprightliness shown in scenes which 
lose their virtue in description but which make 
the character memorable, and which doubtless 
put Baker in mind of a Shakespearean proto- 
type.2 The comparison, of course, was very 
unfavorable, but the mere fact that any re- 
semblance was seen is really praise. 

1 "Fatal Jealousie," Act 5. 

2 David Erskine Baker, "Biographia Dramatica, or a Com- 
panion to the Playhouse. " 1811. ii. 229. " The character 
of Jasper seems to be a bad copy of lago in ' Othello.' " 



72 THE ENGLISH HEROIC PLAY 

Richard is swayed both by ambition and love. 
He is a ''tyrant," and Richmond a "lover." 
The first term probably means " a cruel ruler," 
and Richard with his past crimes and present 
threats against the life of the princess deserves 
the title. Many heroic villains are tyrants; 
but it should be observed that being a villain or 
a tyrant does not prevent one from being a 
lover ; rather love is the customary channel for 
exercising and explaining villany. Here, for 
example, in spite of their appellations, Richard 
is a lover as well as a tyrant. The lover is 
morally good and the tyrant bad, but in essen- 
tials, — desire for success in war and love, — 
they are alike, and there is no complexity in 
either. There is no harmony between the senti- 
ments and those who voice them. Richard, for 
example, complains thus : 

" With Patience, like Love's Martyi*, I have born 
Not only her Denials, but her Scorn." ^ 

" Geneste observes (of Crowne's Caligula) 
that the author has ' been very injudicious in 
the choice of his subject — it was not possible 
to construct a good play on the story of Caligula 
— he was a monster of wickedness, but none of 

1 "English Princess," Act 3, Sc. 2. 



CHARACTER 73 

his actions was of such a nature as to produce 
a good effect upon the stage.' Had our author 
attempted to frame a dramatic chronicle of the 
life of this execrable tyrant, the critique might 
have been accepted, but this was not the object 
of the writer. Giving the piece the name of 
Caligula did not necessarily constitute him its 
hero. The name was used as a peg on which 
to hang the plot, and this has been done by 
Crowne with more success than might have 
been anticipated, when the circumstances under 
which the tragedy was written are taken into 
consideration." ^ 

A great deal of space is devoted to an exposi- 
tion of Caligula. He is on the stage much of 
the time, his speeches are long and frequent; 
and because of this, as the action is somewhat 
slow, his personality seems to dominate the 
whole. It is probably because of the slowness of 
the action — for the first two acts are consumed 
almost entirely with an exposition of his char- 
acter and power — that the first impression is 
that a study in character has been attempted ; ^ 

1 *'The Dramatic Works of John Crowne," with memoir 
and notes by James Maidment and W. H. Logan. 1874. 
iv. 339. 

2 " Of this tragedy it will suffice to say, that though it 
reveals a praiseworthy attempt at character-drawing, the 
baldness of its form in general corresponds to the common- 
place character of its sentiment. ' ' — Ward, iii. 403-404. 



74 THE ENGLISH HEROIC PLAY 

it continues to seem altogether too important to 
be styled merely " a peg on which to hang the 
plot." 

Deriving from history sufficient information 
out of which to construct a character was a 
different matter from giving a character "as 
pourtrayed by " ^ the historian. Crowne did the 
former. There is no need of questioning his 
main source as Suetonius, and from him he 
could have derived a certain amount of bio- 
graphical detail, seemingly considerable only, 
because unusual, and also the framework of 
human monstrosity. But when Caligula had 
been successfully subjected to the require- 
ments of a rhyming villain of the Restoration 
stage, he was necessarily transformed, and the 
likeness to the real emperor ^ or the emperor 
of the historians was much diminished. Not 
surely in this wise did the real emperor woo : 

" Goddess ! — so, no doubt, you are, 
No mortal can be so divinely fair. 

1 "The Emperor is given as pourtrayed by Suetonius, 
upon whose scandalous, but — we suspect — tolerably correct 
biography, Crowne has drawn largely." — Maidment and 
Logan, iv. 340. 

2 " Crowne has drawn the character of the Emperor accord- 
ing to history. " — Genest, ii. 143. 



CHARACTER 75 

Nay, nay, at my request, sweet madam, rise ; 

Let all your graces entertain my eyes ! 

To Caesar grant the infinite delight 

To touch, and see a hand so soft and white. 

Were all thy other beauties cheats of art. 

This hand might palm a passion on my heart. " ^ 

It is difficult to dissociate the matter from the 
diction, but his mind was not given to " purling 
streams," even though it may have been to 
" pleasing dreams." 

" The falls of nations, which fill cowards with fears 
Shall but like water -falls delight our ears ; 
And murmuring subjects shall, like purling streams, 
But lull us deeper in our pleasing dreams." ^ 

Nor was the real character, according to Sue- 
tonius at all addicted to cynical meditation, 
and frequent discourses on his own greatness. 
It appears on study that, if there was an 
attempt made to reproduce the historical figure, 
it was not, from a strict test, successful; and 
there is not nearly the variety to the character 
that such an assumption would forecast. The 
banishment of most of the elements of life, with 
the comprisal only of the concernments of love 
and war, those passions being employed in their 
simplest and most literal way — love, to be 
1 " Caligula," Act 4. 2 ji^i^^ Act 1. 



76 THE ENGLISH HEROIC PLAY 

sure, somewhat formal yet for the most part 
physical, and war no more, no less, than combat 
on the battle-field — greatly narrowed the space 
for character display. So Caligula has much in 
common after all with the rank and file of heroic 
villains. In place of variety there is repetition. 
At the same time there remain enough points of 
contact between him and his historic prototype, 
— points moreover opposite to heroic tradition 
such as inconstancy in love — to differentiate 
him none the less clearly, because not wholly, 
from the others ; and in degree, if not in kind, 
his villainy was deeper dyed and more monster- 
like. The character is almost motiveless. Re- 
venge, ambition, disappointed love, do not 
account for his actions, but rather lust, desire 
for blood, innate depravity. 

The hero is nearly always a young man, 
and the same is true of the villain ; but there 
is generally an old man concerned, who may 
occupy a distinct, though not the principal, 
place; he may, indeed, be synonymous with 
the hero,^ but more often he is allied with 
the villain element. Maximinian,^ one of the 
most famous seventeenth-century characters, 
1 " Sacrifice." 2 u Tyrannic Love." 



CHARACTER 77 

the emperor in the " Conquest of Granada," 
the two Herods,! Solyman in " Ibrahim," Soly- 
man in " Mustapha,"^ and Ibrahim in the " Con- 
spiracy," ^ are all old, and are all amorous. It 
may be the jealous husband, the doting father, 
the aged monarch ; but they do not differ much 
from one another. Age does not bring with it 
individualization, to say nothing of discretion. A 
gray-haired and oft-married sultan uses the same 
language of extravagant enthusiasm, as soon as 
he sees the heroine, that a young lover would use. 
A feature common to the plays is the 
character of the unsuccessful rival to the hero. 
He is sometimes a villain, perhaps the villain, 
who resorts to foul means to advance himself 
in his lady's regard, and is false to friendship. 
Such a villain is.Altemast, who disguises him- 
self as a woman, not for the gratification of 
lust, but to ingratiate himself into the heart 
of Altemira, and takes advantage of her con- 
fidence. Seleucus in "Tryphon" is a false friend. 

1 " Herod the Great." By Roger Boyle, Earl of Orrery. 
1673. And " Herod and Mariainne." 

2 " Mustaplia, the son of Solyman the Magnificent." By 
Roger Boyle, Earl of Orrery. 1008. 

8 " Conspiracy, or the Change of Government." By M. 
Whitaker. 1680. 



78 THE ENGLISH HEEOIC PLAY 

" Our fortunes, Sir, with the like Malice move ; 
You love one sister ; I the other love ; 
You have a rival who her heart has won, 
To me my Rival the like ^Yrong has done ; 
But that at which we justly should repine. 
Your Friend's your Rival, and my Friend is mine."^ 

He debates with himself and decides to prove 
false. 

" Oh ! whither by my Passion am I led ? 
My Love should die after my Hopes are dead ; 
She has herself declar'd to me that she 
Has giv'n to him that which is sought by me ; ] 

Nor is Aretus guilty of the Crime ; ) 

He does to me what I'd have done to him ; ' 

Because in Love I cannot reach my End, 
Why should Revenge deprive me of my Friend? 
Great Gods ! how can I prove so cold and tame, 
As on a Rival to bestow that name? ^ 

And while Aretus does my joys ingross, j 

Talk myself into patience for my loss ? ' 

Since Friendship thus does plead for my Disgrace, 
Revenge, do thou ascend, and take the Place ; ! 

Thou more like Virtue dost to me appear, j 

Than Friendship can, in this Affront I bear, ' 

Since to the Brave nothing should be above ' 

Revenge in Wrongs, or Constancy in Love ; ; 

Therefore thy Death, proud Rival, I'll pursue ; ■ 

If I must lose her, thou must lose her too." "^ j 



For a time he exults in his guilt. 

1 " Tryphon," Act 5. 2 /^j-^^. 



CHARACTER 79 

" You, ere I cou'd make you my great Request, 
Told me, Ai'etus reigned within your Breast; 
Ah ! when I found that he was Monarch there, 
I did, compell'd by Love and by Despair, 
Discover all to Tiyphon, w^ith Design, 
Helping his Love to make him further mine. 
This, Madam, you may look on as my Sin ; 
But, what you think my guilt, I glory in ; 
For what more fully could my Passion prove, 
Than sacrificing of my Friends to Love?" ^ 

In the end, however, he admits to his successful 
rival the justice of his fate. 

" Under such Loads of Guilt myself I find. 
That I, the' f orc'd by Love, your Death design'd, , 
As I the gTeatest suff'rings ought to bear, 
And therefore yield t' endure the loss of her." 2 

But among unsuccessful lovers there is 
many a true friend, and self-sacrifice is by no 
means infrequent. Tudor is perhaps the most 
comprehensive illustration; but Delaware, in 
"The Black Prince," and Sir William Stanley ^ 
are of a like nature, and in a humbler sphere 
the love of the servants and keepers above 
their rank, such as Hametalhaz in the "Em- 
press of Morocco"* and Ulama in "Ibrahim." 

176R "^lUa. 3 English Princess. 

4 " Empress of Morocco." By Elkanah Settle. 1673. 



80 THE ENGLISH HEROIC PLAY 

The friend and rival are frequently the 
same among principal personages, but in the 
lesser figures the friend merges into the con- 
fidant, and the confidant, although in every 
play, is utterly without distinction. 

Although the combination of friendship and 
rivalry is common among men, it is exceedingly 
rare among women. The case of the two 
Amazons, who, until a lover made them rivals, 
had lived in the closest friendship, and then 
vieing to outdo each other in generosity 
eventually decided to share him successive 
years, though minor, seems to be the only one 
in point.^ 

The heroine of this kind of drama falls in 
love with the hero usually at first sight, as soon 
after the opening of the play as possible, if she 
is not already in that state. She is young and 
beautiful, though her beauty is never tangibly 
described except that her eyes are irresistible. 
She may be either maid, wife, or widow, at the 
time of the hero's advent; but if she be wife, 
she remains true to her husband, although his 
jealousy may bring about her death. But she 
admits her love for the hero, and he finds oppor- 
1 "Amazon Queen," Act 4, Sc. 1. 



CHARACTER 81 

tunities to make his addresses. The story of 
their love is a primary matter of the play, and 
she is not interested in any other concern. 
Holzhausen's remark that women in Dryden 
understand how to philosophize about passion, 
but themselves are devoid of feeling,^ may be 
extended to his contemporaries and successors 
in playwriting. 

The Maiden Queen has been praised among 
Dryden's women,^ and she embodies, moreover, 
many of the typical traits. She has the tradi- 
tional anti-democratic sentiment regarding the 
peoples' rights as compared with her own,^ and 
a dislike of being ruled by a husband, espe- 
cially one imposed upon her,* with a touch 
of cynical worldliness on the power of gold to 
win affection. 

" All eyes are fair, 
That sparkle with the jewels of a crown." ^ 

Her counsellors advise her to marry. As 
soon as the "factious deputies" are gone, 
she stands alone in the presence of the man 
she loves, who knows it not. This scene 
is marked by a certain attention to the mood. 

1 Holzhausen, E. S., xiii. 435. ^ pepys. 

8 " Maiden Queen," Act 1, 'Sc. 3. * Ihkh ^ Ibid. 



82 THE ENGLISH HEROIC PLAY 

She fluctuates, desiring him first to stay, then 
to go, then again to stay,^ and weeps because he 
of all men urged her marriage,^ and bemoans 
her want of freedom to love where she will. 

*' Shall I, — I, who was born a sovereign queen, 
Be barred of that which God and nature gives 
The merest slave, a freedom in my love ? " ^ 

He reluctantly leaves her in her "high dis- 
pleasure," accidentally dropping a picture, 
which is handed her. It is of Candiope, Prince 
Lysimantes' sister. She is angry at the revela- 
tion, and straightway remarks on the ugliness 
of the original, though rumor holds Candiope 
beyond comparison the fairest lady our isle can 
boast.* The queen, on being reminded of the 
change that has come over her disposition, says it 
does not matter, for her life will shortly be at 
an end. This leads to a confession of her love 
to a confidant and a planning between them 
as to how Philocles' love may be turned from 
Candiope unto herself ; whether or not to pre- 
vent by " sovereign authority " the marriage of 
Candiope and Philocles.^ There is a repetition 
of her indecision as to how to behave in the 

1 "Maiden Queen," Act 1, So. 3. 
^lUd. ^Ibid. * Ibid, ^ Ibid. 



CHARACTER 83 

presence of Philocles. She tells him she 
loves a man as worthy as himself, and then be- 
cause he, in his ignorance, condemns such a man, 
she rebukes him and banishes him her presence, 
— for the day, — and herself resolves no more to 
love him.i Then, because her confidant agrees 
with her, she reproves the woman, saying, 

" I love him, and may rail ; in you 'tis malice ; " ^ 

but soon repents.^ It is not long before she 
meets her lover. He would run away, to avert 
her displeasure ; for he has been banished ; but 
she has forgotten all about it.* 

The queen comes upon Candiope and her 
lover, is maddened at the sight, insults Candi- 
ope, detailing her physical imperfections, and 
finally, when Candiope rashly says, 

"What my faults are is no matter; 
He loves me with them all, — " 

she retorts : 

" Ay, he may love ; but when he marries you, 
Your bridal shall be kept in some dark dungeon. 
Farewell, and think of that, too easy maid. 
I blush thou sharest my blood." ^ 

1 Ibid. Act 2, Sc. 1. « j^^^cl. s 75^-^. 

* Ibid. Act 3, Sc. 1. e j^/^. 



84 THE ENGLISH HEROIC PLAY 

She goes out, but returns before the lovers 
have finished their scene, and from above listens 
to their wooing, hears herself called cruel, 
despises herself for still loving, and resolves 
anew to cease. She overhears them plotting an 
elopement, decides to ordain fitting punishment, 
and bids her attendant never to mention Philo- 
cles' name again. ^ The queen next commands 
the same woman to do nothing else but speak 
of Philocles, and classes herself with mad people 
who never think the same thing twice. She is 
between anger and love. Philocles has turned 
against her ; she finds her power gone, but 
realizes virtue 

" Has but given me a great occasion 
Of showing what I am, when fortune leaves me." ^ 

On being reminded that her lover is against her 
she answers with unwonted sincerity and natu- 
ralness : 

" Ay, Philocles ! I must confess 'twas hard." ^ 

" Never till now unhappy queen." * 

Asteria, unknown to her, indicates to Philo- 
cles the queen's love for him. The queen sus- 

1 " Maiden Queen," Act 3, Sc. 1. » Ibid. 

2 Ibid, Act 4, Sc. 2. * Ihid. 



CHARACTER 85 

pects as much, and blames not more her con- 
fidant's " female weakness " than her own in 
trusting her. " O, whither am I fallen ? " she 
says. But she determines upon a course of 
action — to rouse herself from her passion — 

" In hearts resolved weak love is put to flight, 
And only conquers, when we dare not fight." ^ 

Lysimantes enters, he who has made her vir- 
tually a prisoner. He asks her hand in mar- 
riage, and is spurned. He upbraids her with 
loving beneath her. At the first suspicion that 
this love is known the queen says, in an aside : 

" This is the extremest malice of my stars. " ^ 

He accuses her plainly, mentions her jealousy 
of Candiope, and concludes, 

" Prove you love him not, yet give her him, ^ 
And I'll engage my honour to lay down my arms. 
Now hold my heart, for this one act of honour, 
And I will never ask more courage of thee." ^ 

And she believes her love shrinking and giving 
way to glory. But on the sight of Philocles 
she knows her passion is not banished, but only 
"chained up."* Yet she renounces her love, 

1 Ibid. Act 5, Sc. 1. 2 762U » Ibid. * Ibid, 



86 THE ENGLISH HEROIC PLAY 

bids Pliilocles take Candiope, wishes them hap- 
piness, and is pleased with herself that she can 
force her tongue to speak words so distant from 
her heart ; and for herself resolves to con- 
tinue unmarried, and to devote her life to her 
subjects.^ Lysimantes, who loves her, in imita- 
tion of her oath, vows a single life, and the play- 
ends with her in complete joy, for the right of 
Lysimantes will devolve upon Candiope, and 
therefore will be 

" This great content, to think when I am dead, 
My crown may fall on Philocles head." 

The Maiden Queen's actions have been thus 
specifically detailed because mainly through 
them is her character disclosed, and her char- 
acter is of special importance because of Dry- 
den's explicit statement : " It was as much 
as I designed, to show one great and absolute 
pattern of honour in my poem, which I did 
in the person of the queen ; all the defects of 
the other parts being set to show, the more to 
recommend that one character of virtue to the 
audience." ^ 

The Maiden Queen is painted with a little 

1 " Maiden Queen," Act 5, Sc. 1. 2 ii^i^^ Preface. 



CHARACTER 87 

finer brush than most of the corresponding 
characters. It is the attention to the passing 
mood that distinguishes the delineation, and 
self-sacrifice is the most important element in 
her character. This quality is not typical to a 
noticeable extent of the virtuous women of the 
heroic drama, but through it a few of them 
deserve mention. Perhaps the queen herself is 
the only major character of the kind ; the minor 
in Dryden is Amalthea in "Marriage-a-la-Mode," 
hieing to a nunnery and submitting to the pangs 
of unrequited love. 

Asteria is the daughter of Solyman the Mag- 
nificent in "Ibrahim." Ibrahim is the sultan's 
favorite, and returning from victorious wars, is 
rewarded by Asteria's hand. Her love for him 
is unrequited, for he is betrothed to " Isabella, 
a Christian Princess," and at the risk of dis- 
grace declines the sultan's offer. Isabella ap- 
pears and Solyman becomes enamoured of her. 
Asteria, instead of scorning Ibrahim for ever- 
more, and hating her rival, apprises the lovers 
of her father's design, and aids them, though 
unsuccessfully, to escape. When the guards 
enter to capture Ibrahim, Asteria fights in his 
defence, and is killed. The usual note of 



88 THE ENGLISH HEROIC PLAY 

hatred toward her rival is lacking in this 
character. It is purely from unselfish motives 
and with realization of her hopeless love that 
she acts as she does. Chariot,^ the girl dis- 
guised as a page who helps her lover win her 
rival, is another case in point. 

The character of Thalestris, the Amazon 
Queen, stands oat in sharp contrast to the 
conventional heroine. She is a vindicator of 
the rights of womankind and also the unsuc- 
cessful aspirant for Alexander's affection. 

" But I can never be his enemy, 
Nor can they others love who him once see." 2 

Haughty, uncompromising, not willing to par- 
take his half love, — 

"In love and friendship it is too well known, 
They are but half friends who have more than one ; 
And all who are true lovers like to me. 
Dread such a friend more than an enemy," — * 

in a moment of wine-exhilaration — on reflec- 
tion, perhaps shocking, but not shockingly por- 
trayed — she informs him of her passion. 

1 In the " English Princess." 

2 "Amazon Queen," Act 2, Sc. 2. 

3 Ihid. Act 2, Sc. 3. 



CHARACTER 89 

" Though slavish women use not to bestow 
Hearts on those men who do to others bow, 
Yet thy great merit makes it destiny, 
I cann't but do't, and in drink tell it thee. 
Wine does make love like Spring-tides over-flow. 
Else I should scorn you should this weakness know."^ 

She resigns herself with extraordinary com- 
plaisance to her fate, hoping 

" Marr'age may help me yet with jealousie." ^ 

She coolly prophesies that the marriage will be 
unhappy. 

" Sir, your Statira's more than any she. 
If she's without some hid deformity; 
But if more knowledge should discover naught, 
But that her mind and body's as it ought ; 
Yet all minds have an inequality. 
Which will make them distrust or disagree. 
For when Statira shall sometimes be dull, 
Then love will seem not answer'd to the full; 
And when you her frolick and wanton find. 
Then you will doubt she may to more be kind." ^ 

In a worldly-wise way she declines the invita- 
tion to the wedding. 

" Excuse me, Sir, if I resolve to shun 
The witnessing your being both undone. 
But I have made some Amazons advance 
To give your Majesty this night a dance. 

1 Ibid. Act 4, So. 5. 2 jj^ict. 3 ji^i^. Act 5, So. 3. 



90 THE ENGLISH HEROIC PLAY 

And I will wait i' th' morning when you rise 

To see what charms remains in the Queen's eyes." ^ 

Her story, disregarding the manner in which 
it is presented, is not unusual ; but her opinions 
on the rights of woman and her championship 
of the unmarried state sound in advance of her 
time. She proclaims herself as 

" The Queen of liberty," 2 

and states her mission : 

*' This woman scorns some Husband's tyranny; 
And all such female worthies we must free." ^ 

Thalestris is a veritable Amazon, — 

*' By heaven she mocks me 'cause I had a slight. 
Ah, that thou wert a rival who durst fight ; " * 

she tries to be thoroughly masculine : 

" Though I, like men, have learn'd to fight and woe. 
To be accomplish'd I must try drink too." ^ 

Her discrediting marriage may be distinguished 
from the similar note in contemporary comedy, 

1 " Amazon Queen," Act 5, Sc. 7. This character is not to 
be confounded with the one of the same name in '^ Siege of 
Babylon." 

2 Ibid. Act 4, Sc. 5. * Ibid. Act 2, Sc. 7. 
8 Ibid. Act 2, Sc. 3. ^ n^i^. Act 4, Sc. 5. 



CHARACTER 91 

where the end is satirical, or in the body of 
tragedy, where the exposition is made by a 
lover in defence of his disregarding the marital 
state. With her it is both a personal and an 
impersonal matter. 

" You use me ill to talk of marriage, 
I scorn to be your tame bird in a cage." ^ 

She thinks of wedlock 

" As that which loseth womens sov'reignty." ^ 

Her argument is more thoughtful than in the 
mass of similar passages in other plays. 

" For with a kind and sprightly liberty, 
They meet by natures choice whose Souls are free; 
Whilst marri'd fools, like Curs in couples ti'd, 
Would fain be running where they are deni'd, 
But each hates other as an enemy, 
For checking a more grateful sympathy ; 
And so with dull and froward thoughts they get 
Babes like themselves, fit to submit and fret." * 

The reasoning is more detailed : 

"I'l have no master for Companion. 
If I would take the air, I first must know 
If 't be fair weather in my husband's brow ; 
And all my dearest friends I must forswear, 
Lest he should think they are to me too dear ; , 

1 Ibid. Act 1, Sc. 4. « Ibid, Act 5, So. 4. 

3 Ibid. Act 2, Sc. 6. 



92 THE ENGLISH HEROIC PLAY 

My fortune too is his, and I must be 
Stinted in point of generosity." ^ 

Zelmura is the principal person in the " Siege 
of Memphis, or the Ambitious Queen." 2 

She is also an Amazon. Her fame as warrior 
precedes her appearance : 

''the Queen did dauntless stand, 
Terrour coucht in her eye, death in her hand ; 
The Heartless Crowd wondering, look up to spy 
This new Bellona usher'd from the Sky." ^ 

She wins the battle against the " Assyrians," 
and their leader Moarun. She offers to fight 
him single-handed, — 

" For though a Woman I've a manly Soul."^ 

Honor prevents his accepting the challenge. 
His gallantry captivates her ; so, when the king 
orders his death, she stops the guards who are 
about to take him away. 

1 " Amazon Queen," Act 1, Sc. 4. 

2 "This play is dedicated to the Truly Generous Henry 
Chivers, Esq. , who shew ' himself truly such in defending a 
play so full of Bombast and Fustian." — Langbaine, p. 183. 
"Zelmura, however, is a spirited character." — Genest, 
i. 183. 

3 " Siege of Memphis," Act 1, Sc. 1. 
* lUd. Act 1, Sc. 2. 



CHARACTER 93 ! 

Still the king's admiration for her is un- : 

bounded. ; 

" Let other monarchs of their Subjects boast, I 

I have a Theam will fill the mouth of fame J 

His Trump resounding with a woman's name ; ^ 

A woman whose brave Spirit do's presage '; 

A happy fortune to Our latter Age, ; 

The Noble Carian Queen whose fame flys far I 

For aiding Xerxes in the Persian war, I 

She, whose renown through our East confine spreds j 

For Godlike vertues, and heroick deeds, ' 
Would quit her fading claim did She live now, 
And place her Laurel on Zelmura's brow." ^ 

Yet he would get Moarun out of the way. She \ 

not only intercedes in the prisoner's behalf, but ; 

commands the king to obey her wishes ; and j 

she speaks so strongly that his manner toward j 

her changes. " 

" Oh, damn'd Hypocrysie in woman kind." ^ \ 

i 
The queen straightway does act the hypocrite, 

feigning all compliance to her lord's will, but ; 

begs a boon which is no less than j 

" The sole command o'er Egypt for three days." » , 

1 Ibid. Act 1, Sc. 1. 2 ii)ia. Act 2, Sc. 3. \ 

3 Ibid. Act 3, Sc. 3. j 



94 THE ENGLISH HEROIC PLAY 

No sooner is this granted than she ascends the 
throne, has Moarun unbound, and the king 
himself, together with his son, seized. She next 
becomes aware of the mutual love of her sister 
Amasis and Moarun, and therefore prevents 
his departure, and threatens to stab Amasis 
unless she go to Moarun, and give him the 
impression that she no longer loves him. 
Amasis does this ; but still, persisting in her 
love, the queen draws upon her and mortally 
wounds her. She attempts likewise to kill 
Moarun because he does not love her, and 
finally destroys herself. Ambition is the key- 
note to her character. She threatens to 

" Destroy the World, kill and disrobe 
Nature of her perfections, shake the Globe 
To its first Chaos, and by actions prove. 
Nothing can match a Woman's hate or love." ^ 

There is much presumptuous daring. 

" And womens courage by ambition warm'd 
Dares laugh at danger, though all Hell stood arm'd." - 

Her course of action is plainly marked. 

" Shall theams of Vertue make Zelmura pine, 

All ills of woman s frailty I resign 
I bear a spirit brave and masculine, 

1 " Siege of Memphis," Act 2, Sc. 2. « Ibid. Act 3, Sc. 2. 



CHARACTER 95 

My pleasures are my Gods, and passions birth, 
Uncurb'd, and lawless is my Heaven or Earth." i 

Zelmura is a " traiteresse," regicide, death- 
dealer to a husband, and a sororicide. Yet she 
was obviously intended for a heroine. Her 
audacity, doubtless, more than any other qual- 
ity, won the criticism, "drawn with spirit." 
But the other characters in the play speak well 
of her. The king has already alluded to her 
"Godlike vertues and heroick deeds." Thus 
the sultan of Syria laments her departure : 

" Farewell, thou type of never dying fame, 
Whose lamp of honour shall forever flame; "^ 

and thus his son, Moarun, the hero, whose life 
she attempted : 

" Injurious Gods, and too tyrannick fate, 
That givest so noble lives so short a date, 
That rob'st divine perfection of her store, 
Which thus at wast consum'd makes Nations poor 
Was't not enough, Oh, Envious, to subdue, 
A Queen whose Second Affrick never knew. 
But you must stop this Princess amber breath, 
And proudly triumph in a Virgins death, 
Heaven now, methinks, ungrateful do's appear, 
These deeds had ne're be done, had I sat there." ^ 

1 Ibid. Act 4, So. 1. « Ihid. Act 5, Sc. 5. « m^^ 



96 THE ENGLISH HEROIC PLAY 

Undoubtedly the explanation for this purging 
of her character may be found in the wondrous 
properties of heroic love. 

" Souls are not Damn'd if they have grace to Love, 
But blest with charms are fixt on Thrones above." ^ 

In spite of these encomiums, however, which 
would place the Ambitious Queen among the 
heroines of this kind of drama, her character as 
shown in her sentiments and deeds is sufficiently 
like the woman villains of other plays to repre- 
sent them. The incidents in which they are 
placed vary slightly, and according to these 
they have more or less chance to exercise their 
proclivities. 

In general, such a character is actuated at 
first by ambition for power, and in the course 
of the play falls in love with the hero. There 
is usually no conflict between ambition and 
love ; she simply resolves to attain both. 
Sometimes and in some cases love is preemi- 
nent, and sometimes ambition, and it is chiefly 
the stress on one of the two notes that distin- 
guishes the characters from one another ; and 
it is the absence of other notes (for jealousy 

1 " Siege of Memphis," Act 3, Sc. 1. 



CHARACTER 97 

and revenge are but phases of the invariable 
disappointment, they are never drawn subtly 
or with distinction) that makes their common 
resemblances so palpable. Such characters are 
Laula, the Empress of Morocco, Kiosem in the 
''Conspiracy," Roxana in the "Siege of Baby- 
lon," 1 Salome in " Herod and Mariamne," and 
Solome in " Herod the Great." 

The characters arrange themselves then into 
a few groups. Their construction is so simple, 
so devoid of complexity, and they are all so en- 
veloped and influenced by the spirit of heroic 
love that classification is not a mechanical mat- 
ter of mutually exclusive types, but according 
to the emphasis attached to one elemental pas- 
sion rather than another. For the fourteen 
characters, more or less, in every play, the list of 
" Persons Represented " itself not infrequently 
suggests and partly indicates their respective 
functions. In the first place, it is either stated 
or inferred that nearly every one of them is 
" in love with " another, so that " a lover " or 
"the lover" after a name would mean noth- 
ing ; it would be a trite and useless comment. 
Therefore it is, doubtless, that the hero who is 

1 " Siege of Babylon." By Samuel Pordage. 1675. 

H 



98 THE ENGLISH HEROIC PLAY 

none other than the principal lover is not char- 
acterized in the dramatis per sonce^ except possibly 
by the position of the name on the printed 
page. The villain is next in importance, and 
the fact that he is such is often boldly stated: 
Philampras,^ a '' Villain " ; Ragalzan,^ a " Vil- 
lain"; Jasper,^ a "Villain"; Bectas,* "a 
Rebel " ; Smerdis,^ " an Imposter," and Sul- 
pitius,^ "of a treacherous nature." On the 
other hand, Achilles ^ is " a great Champion of 
Greece " ; Ulysses,^ " a wise Counsellor " ; Dio- 
medes,^ " a Valiant Confederate " ; Sertorious,^^ 
"a brave Man, of a high Spirit" ; and Mutius,^! 
"a lover of War." Don Antonio ^ is typical of 
"a Jealous Lord." Of the women Alcinda^^ is 
" an Innocent Lady " ; Perilla,i* " a rich Wid- 
dow " ; Andromache,!^ " the faithful Wife of 
Hector " ; Cassandra,!^ " that prophesied the 
Destruction of Troy." The list usually con- 
cludes with mention of a " Friend " or two, 

1 " Marcelia." 2 u Conquest of China." 

3 " FatalJealousie. " * "Conspiracy." ^ c t cambyses." 
6 " Vestal Virgin, or the Roman Ladies." By Sir Robert 
Howard. 1665. ^ "Destruction of Troy." 

8 Ibid. 9 Ihid. 10 " Vestal Virgin." n Ibid. 

12 " Fatal Jealousie." ^^ " Conquest of China." 

1* " Marcelia." ^^ " Destruction of Troy." ^^ Ibid. 



CHAKACTER 99 

^ 

" confidants," ^ or some such term, for the most 
unimportant figures. ^ 

In the main tliese introductions are reliable 
and more than sufficient. They not only indi- 
cate but sometimes exhaust the character ; de- 
scription ends where it begins. The principal 
difference between heroes is not one of nature 
but of position, — of degree of importance. 
Major and minor lovers are the same in kind. 
Zungteus^ is a hero of the first rank. Like 
him, on a minor plane, is Quitazo ; * Muly 
Hamet ^ and Muly Labas ^ bear the same rela- 
tion to each other. 

There is somewhat more variation among the 
villains. They are actuated by a greater num- 
ber of motives. Revenge for an insult prompts 
Cassander ; '' Ragalzan ^ thinks he should have 
been rewarded for his victories in war by the 
princess' hand, and was not ; and Zachmi ^ 
would avenge a brother's death. 

1 "Confident and Creature," "Empress of Morocco," 
" Chief Servant and Creature," " Great Favourite." 

2 There is a "priest" when needed, but he is but master 
of supernatural ceremonies. 

8 ' ' Conquest of China. " * Ibid. 

^ " Empress of Morocco." ^ /^j^yZ. ^ " Rival Kings." 

8 " Sacrifice." ^ " Siege of Memphis." 



100 THE ENGLISH HEROIC PLAY 

There are so few types that duplication and 
repetition in the same play^ are necessary to 
complete the list. Thus it happens that the 
minor characters are for the most part pictures- 
in-little of the others ; among them there is, 
however, a little more freedom of treatment 
than in the case of the major characters, and 
slightly more conformity with human nature. 
Holzhausen seems to think that in Dryden a 
minor character, per «e, is truer to life. He 
says : " The weak Boabdelin and his faithless 
brother, Abdalla, in ' The Conquest of Granada,' 
likewise the emperor in ' Aureng-Zebe,' in a 
word those whose characters afford less oppor- 
tunity for idealistic extravagance are conceived 
more realistically and drawn truer to nature 
than the high-flown heroes." ^ 

There are a few plays having an heroic ele- 

1 As to the resemblance of the individuals of a given 
type in several plays, enough has already been said, al- 
though the oft-quoted extract from Martin Clifford's Letter 
on Dryden' s borrowing from himself is ever pertinent. 
"Was not this huff-cap (Almanzor) once the Indian 
Emperor and at another time did he not call himself Maxi- 
mine?" And "You are a strange, unconscionable thief, 
that art not content to steal from others, but dost rob thy 
poor wretched self too." 

2 Holzhausen, E. S., xv. 49. 



CHARACTER 101 

ment that are distinguished by certain unusual 
characters not found in the mass. Such char- 
acters are in particular, Mpriphanus in Mrs. 
Boothby's "Marcelia," described in "The 
Actor's Names " as " a proud, silly, rich fellow," 
and both the charlatan witch and the mad 
nurse in "Fatal Jealousie." 

The scene of " Marcelia " is France, and yet 
Moriphanus is nothing other than the Frenchi- 
fied fop of contemporary English comedy. The 
witch might be more appropriately treated 
under a study of the supernatural; while the 
Nurse, faintly echoing perhaps an original in 
"Romeo and Juliet," has, besides, a love affair 
of her own, and through it is led to murder, 
goes mad, and is killed by the villain. The 
role is mentioned in stage histories because it 
was played by Nokes with such success that he 
was ever afterwards called "Nurse Nokes." 

The truth is, however, that these characters, 
and others like them, especially those of the 
comic sort, while not uncommon in other forms, 
are so entirely contrary to the heroic mode, 
that they may be dismissed from discussion. 
The plays in which they are found are hybrids. 
There is now and again an effort to lighten 



102 THE ENGLISH HEKOIC PLAY 

the too heroic tone of a piece. ^ But an heroic 
play with a slight admixture of comedy is 
different in kind from a comedy whose serious 
scenes are in rhyme ; ^ and in the former this 
admixture is seldom introduced, seldom im- 
portant, and seldom successful. ^ 

After all, the effort to discover genuine indi- 
vidualization within the field proper is not well 
repaid. It does not appear to have been often 
attempted, and the attempt, when made, was 
simple and oratorical. 

'^ Antipater. What is this, for whose sake you thought 
My Father might from his Revenge be brought ? 
Since my Disgrace he did to favour climb. 

Pholtiel. To draw him, Sir, at length, requires much 
time. 
He is, to give his Character in short, 
In War most fierce, most humble in the Court ; 

1 " 'Tis hard when a Man's own Wit runs so low, that he 
is forced to let in the tide of another Man's Counsel ; 'tis as 
fatal and slavish as borrowing of money." — "Sacrifice," 
Act 2. 

2 Cf. " Comical Revenge." 

3 For instance. Ward (iii. 344) thus speaks of Orrery's 
" Altemira," "The author has here essayed a comic char- 
acter called Filladen, but the scene in which he and the 
other lords review the ladies of the court is as devoid of wit 
as the lyrics interspersed are of charm." 



CHARACTER 103 

Who merits favour, yet obtains it not, 
In him unask'd an Advocate has got. 
Respect for him he in all hearts has bred, 
Because it is not sought, but merited. 
Malice does fear such Virtue to pursue, 
Which makes him f avour'd without Envy too." * 

The range of emotions is small. 

" I know not what to do, I am so torn 
By love and honour, jealousie and scorn ! " ^ 

This states the usual gamut. Since it is so, 
the tendency is for each character to become 
the exponent and champion of a single phase, 
a single idea, and the championship of any 
two phases on equal terms results in character 
balance. 

The tendency is fostered by the liking for 
discussion for its own sake — a distinguishing 
trait of this drama. For instance, a faithless 
person is offset by an example of true friend- 
ship. Seleucus is the false friend ; in the same 
play, Demetrius is the true. He speaks : 

"I am resolv'd to do what I did vow ; 
For were I guilty of so mean a Thing, 
As to be false both to my Friend and King 

1 " Herod the Great," Act 2. 

2 "Amazon Queen," Act 2, So. 3. 



104 THE ENGLISH HEROIC PLAY 

And should thereby my End in Love obtain, 
The Joy would scarce be equal to my Pain. 
Perhaps she will not be to me severe, 
When sacred Friendship only made me err." ^ 

And to '' her " he explains ; 

" Yet to a Trust Fidelity is due ; 
That Man who can be faithless to his Friend 
Tho' 'tis in Love, deserves to lose his End. 

Could I but one unworthy action do, 
I should by it forfeit my Right in you ; 
And tho' you might to pardon me think fit. 
Yet to myself I ne'er could pardon it." ^ 

Ptolemy 3 and Lysimachus are rivals and 
friends. The former cannot endure the rivalry, 
and desires a duel ; the other declines to fight 
him on the score of friendship. They differ 
only in their attitude toward friendship. 

Love and constancy are the only qualities 
which the hero and heroine expect to find in 
each other, and as the minor characters are but 
an embodiment of a single phase of the heroic 
idea, character development, as a feature, is not 
to be expected. There seems to have been no 
room for it in the scheme. Even passion, cu- 

1 "Tryphon," Act 3, Sc. 1. 2 jj^i^. Act 4, Sc. 1. 

3 " Siege of Babylon." 



CHARACTER 105 

mulative from act to act, till at last it seems as 
if all human words would fall short of adequate 
significance — which sometimes passes for char- 
acter development — is not found; for there is 
frequently as much bombast in the first act 
as in the last, and thus a character literally 
exhausts his vocabulary, his greatest resource, 
early, and later he has outworn his old weapons, 
and cannot find new. The nearest resemblance 
to growth or any kind of alteration is in the 
case of repenting wrong-doers. Not all do 
repent. These either kill themselves or are 
killed in a characteristic manner, villanously 
cursing unto death. 

There are, however, some repenting villains, 
whose remorse is either perfunctory — to satisfy 
the traditional exigencies of the plot — or more 
naturally, though still superficially, in the nature 
of character expression ; their number is very 
small. The kings who desert their first mistress, 
unsuccessfully woo a second, and because of 
their failure return to the first, are obviously 
in the former class ; the sultan in " Ibrahim," 
is of the latter. He is brought to a realiza- 
tion of his folly by the dying sultana relating 
to him the growth and decline of his love for 



106 THE ENGLISH HEROIC PLAY 

her. Gradually, as she speaks, his affection 
returns ; and she dies hearing and believing in 
his contrition. 1 

Although the characters belong to types, they 
do not represent humors. To say nothing of 
the comic, there is no suggestion either of 
physical or temperamental peculiarities to mark 
either individuals or groups. Dryden's use of 
the word "eccentric" — Almanzor a character 
of " eccentric virtue " — refers simply to a 
slight deviation from absolute perfection for the 
sake of human interest, such as " a confidence 
of himself almost approaching to an arrogance." 
There is no hint of a humor. 

1 The commentators on particular dramatists are agreed 
as to the absence of character development. To quote but 
three: Shad well "neither knew how to develop character 
nor to depict its more subtle differences." — Kenyon West. 
"The Laureates of England." 1895. "In Otway devel- 
opment of character . . . is little found." — Otway. Mer- 
maid Series. Introduction by Hon. Roden Noel, p. xvi. 
"Morat's character (' Aureng-Zebe') is one of the few in 
Dryden's heroic plays in which dramatic development is not 
entirely lacking. On the contrary, there appears in him the 
purifying influence of love unusual in this kind. The stern 
man dies ; the cause is not quite apparent ; according to 
Hettner, it is of a broken heart {I c. p. 91), after he has 
become "reconciled with his faithful wife, Melisinda, and 
convinced of the vanity of his ambitious aspirations." — 

HOLZHAUSEN, E. S., XV. 43. 



CHARACTER 107 

Such as it was, simple, not complex, rough, 
not fine, typical, not individualized, character 
was doubtless considered an important part of 
dramatic construction. There is every reason 
to suppose that the authors, each according to 
his light, so regarded it. Not only is there the 
direct assertion of their leaders, but the name in 
itself — heroic drama — implies necessarily the 
presence, and infers the importance of a hero. 
To portray him, as the term was understood in 
dramatic parlance at that time, must have been 
a primary object. 

But how ? The answer involves a definition 
of the heroic. Perhaps it might be claimed that 
as used here this adjective has nothing to do 
with the quality of the character, but only 
with its exalted rank, hence illustrious, hence 
heroic. But inasmuch as the model of the 
ancients is so frequently alluded to, it would 
seem that a contemporary interpretation would 
regard the great epic figures as in part originals. 

It is plain that if this was the theory, practice 
did not bear it out. It is also plain that what- 
ever the theory, practice did not bear it out. 
For the ideal lacked consistency. Here, accord- 
ing to Dryden, are the models of Almanzor : 



108 THE ENGLISH HEROIC PLAY 

"I must therefore avow, in the first place, 
from whence I took the character. The first 
image I had of him, was from the Achilles of 
Homer; the next from Tasso's Rinaldo (who 
was a copy of the former), and the third from 
the Artaban of Monsieur Calprenede." ^ 

It was an interesting experiment, but was 
it possible for a character so conceived to be 
born in the world with a single spark of genuine 
vitality? There seems to have been a con- 
fusion in thought regarding the ancient heroes 
of Greece and Rome on the one hand, and the 
heroes of seventeenth-century French romance 
on the other. Now, the two appear incom- 
patible. Dry den says that ; 

"An heroic play ought to be an imitation, 
in little, of an heroic poem ; and consequently 
. . . love and valour ouffht to be the sul)iect 
of it." 2 ^ ^ 

But there was as little love in Achilles and 
^neas as there is valour in the English heroic 
plays, not to mention the different meanings 
of the terms in the two instances. According 
to Dryden, Almanzor is the great-grandchild 
of Achilles, but the real kinship is no closer 
than if the intervening generations had been 
1 Dryden, " Essay on Heroic Plays." 2 j^fi^ 



CHARACTER 109 

indeed from the Homeric age to the fall of 
Granada. 1 

The English Restoration hero was the result 
of an attempt to make a composite portrait of 
ancient classical and modern romance heroes. 
The latter became predominant, and finally 
overshadowed the other, — granting even that 
the other had not from the beginning been 
blurred beyond recognition. 

The incompatibility of the models had some- 
thing to do with the result. But much more 
the heroic type was as it was because there 

1 Of course, Almanzor is nearer related to the heroes of 
French romance in general, and incidentally, though only 
partially, to Artaban in Calprenede's " Cleopatre " in par- 
ticular. For instance, he goes over to the enemy when the 
king declines to release a prisoner at his request. Cf. H. 
Koerting, " Geschichte des Fransoschische Romans im XVII 
jahrhundert," 1891, i. 298. 

Dryden's denial is interesting: "For my own part, I 
declare myself for Homer and Tasso, and am more in love 
with Achilles and Rinaldo than with Cyrus' and Oroondates. 
I shall never subject my characters to the French standard, 
where love and honour are to be weighed by drachms and 
scruples." Holzhausen comments on this as follows : " At 
any rate, this last cannot be asserted of Almanzor, who, 
furthermore, was likely to, and actually did, give offence, 
in the age of Louis XIV and Charles II, on account of his 
contemptuous attitude to crowned heads." — Holzhausen, 
E. S., XV. 44. 



110 THE ENGLISH HEROIC PLAY 

is not any record of a single effort to produce 
an " image of human life " at first hand, and 
the failure is the more noticeable because Dry- 
den himself applied the phrase to Almanzor. 
There is not a single instance of human nature 
being either the inspiration or the source of 
a heroic character. Knowledge of it was evi- 
dently not deemed either necessary or greatly 
desirable as prerequisite for dramatic writing. 
" Drawing all things as far above the ordinary 
proportion of the stage as that is beyond the 
common words and actions of human life " in 
Dryden's words must needs result, in ambitious 
as well as in inferior hands, disastrously : in the 
superhu manly extravagant, in general ; and at 
the worst will so manifest itself as (to apply to 
a few a phrase that Genest uses for a single 
play) to "set burlesque at defiance."^ There 
was a lack of restraint in the conception — "I 

1 The heroic drama is not without merit, but it was 
deficient in character delineation, and this deficiency has 
afforded amusement from its own time. " Without rant" 
— applied to certain characters by the critics — always sig- 
nifies, comparatively, considerable praise, while some, such 
as Gray and Lowell, comment on the weaker points with 
great reluctance. Gray said enough harsh things about 
Dryden before he changed his attitude, but why Lowell 
declined to smile is not easy to ascertain. 



CHARACTER 111 

love intemperance in all I do," says Caligula; 
an absence of poise, order, or anything that re- 
sembled responsibility. The desire for propor- 
tion is disappointed. In short, the Restoration 
hero and his train proved to be made of such 
perishable stuff because their composition was 
found wanting in that sense, which, to the ex- 
altation of the populace they despised, is called 
common. 



.¥)': 



Y 



CHAPTER IV 

SENTIMENT 

I. Love and Honor 

In the field of sentiment displayed by the 
heroic play the element of love is universal. 
Occasionally there is a character of importance 
not affected by it, as Cassander in the " Rival 
Kings." So few are such exceptions that love 
seems all-pervasive. The dramatis personoe 
of the " Rival Ladies " mentions no character 
without stating whom that character is " in 
love with." Other plays, in the course of 
action, reveal as much. This passion is not 
confined to human or mortal beings, but em- 
braces unearthly spirits.^ It is beyond human 
control. 

" We of ourselves can neither love nor hate. 
Heaven does reserve the power to guide our fate." ^ 

1 "Tyrannic Love." 
8 "Comical Revenge," Act 1, Sc. 4. 
112 



SENTIMENT 113 

Its pains are foreordained. 

" Ye gods, why are not hearts first paired above. 
But some still interfere in other's love ? 
Ere each for each by certain marks are known, 
You mould them up in haste, and drop them down; 
And, while we seek what carelessly you sort. 
You sit in state, and make our pains your sport." ^ 

The hero is most zealous to declare his equality 
with or superiority to destiny in other concerns ; 
but when love is the issue, he becomes a voluntary 
or involuntary victim. It is hard to exaggerate 
its importance. 

" He who resigns his Love, tho' for his King, 
Does, as he is a Lover, a low Thing ; 
But as a Subject, a high Crime does do, 
Being at once, Subject and Rebel too ; 
For whilst to Regal Pow'r he does submit, 
He casts off Love, a greater Pow'r than it." 2 

The passion is a noble frailty, and is so de- 
scribed in successive plays : 

" Love is, at worst, a noble Frailty thought." ^ 
" Loves the noblest Frailty of the Mind." * 

1 " Conquest of Granada," Ft. 2, Act 3, Sc. 3. 

2 " Henry V," Act 5. Added meaning is lent to this 
passage when Orrery's regard for royalty, as well as loyalty, 
and the divine right of kings is taken into consideration. 

8 "Black Prince," Act 3. 
* " Indian Emperor," Act 2, Sc. 2. 
I 



114 THE ENGLISH HEROIC PLAY 

" It is the noblest error of great Minds." ^ 

Love is, in many cases, debasing. 

" Hast thou been never base ? did love ne'er bend 
Thy frailer virtue, to betray thy friend ? " ^ 

" Witness, ye powers, 
How much I suffered, and how long I strove 
Against the assaults of this imperious love ! 
I represented to myself the shame 
Of perjured faith, and violated fame ; 
Your great deserts, how ill they were repaid ; 
All arguments, in vain, I urged and weighed : 
For mighty love, who prudence does despise, 
For reason showed me Indamora's eyes. 
What would you more ? my crime I sadly view, 
Acknowledge, am ashamed, and yet pursue." ^ 

Wrong-doing at the dictate of love is justified ; 

" Blame not an act, which did from love proceed." * 

But glorification and justification of love is, 
nevertheless, the usual attitude. The attitude is 
serious, but now and then there is a frivolous 
and sceptical note. 

" Love is a Lye itself ; there's no such passion : 
And Truth to Women makes men most suspected, 
Because 'tis rarely practic'd. 
No woman takes herself to be a Monster ; 

1 " Sacrifice," Act 2. 2 u Aureng-Zebe, "Act 1, So. 1. 

3 Ibid. Act 2, Sc. 1. 

* "Indian Emperor," Act 1, Sc. 2. 



SENTIMENT 115 

Yet she wou'd be so, if her Eyes were Stars, 
Her Lips of Roses, and her Face of Lilies : 
Why, Traps were made for foxes. Gins for Hares, 
Limetwigs for Birds, and Lyes and Oaths for 
women." ^ 

Both serious and derogatory to love is the very- 
exceptional remark of the hero of the " Siege of 
Memphis " on the death of his mistress. 

" From henceforth drossy passions I'll remove, 
And guard myself from the Curst baits of Love." ^ 

Falling in love is seldom a gradual process, but 
usually the passion is born of and with the first 
glance, and in one case, at least, even before the 
lover has seen the object of his affection. 

" In Athens late you nip'd my forward growth 
And from my tender studies broke my youth ; 
Then call'd me to you from my Country far 
To wait upon you, and to teach me War. 
In Battailes toils, when you the day had spent, 
You'd take me to you private in your tent ; 
There, as to shelter in some silent grove. 
You'd shut me in, and tell me tales of Love. 
Your charming tongue did ope my breath so wide. 
Love shot in shafts, on which himself did ride : 
AVhen on Statira's Picture you wou'd look, 
Faire Parisatis forme from you I tooke. " ^ 

i '* Sacrifice," Act 2. 2 u gjege of Memphis," Act 5. 

8 "Rival Kings," Act 2. 



116 THE ENGLISH HEROIC PLAY 

Examples of instantaneous love are so numerous 
that it is commonly considered a character- 
istic mark of this kind of drama. The vastness 
of his feeling and the difficulty of a lover's fate 
are re-echoed. 

" Never was any lover's fate so hard." ^ 

" When men name one who lov'd to a Degree 
Ne'er known before, they'll say he lov'd like me." 2 

The effects of the passion are various; some- 
times ennobling ; as frequently, ignoble. 

" Ne'er more expect to see his Armour on, 
Perfumed and curl'd in Silks, he'll dance all day, 
All night his limbs on downy Quilts he'll lay, 
And sing his threats, and smile his frowns away. 
Whence is this change ? 
Beauty, Sir ; is the cause." ^ 

Quite another strain and one oft repeated is 



To lose her yet deserve her is more fit 
Then to posses her and not Merit it ; " ^ 



and, 



" That great Action I intend to do ; 
If I her Right, above my love prefer, 
In that, by losing, I shall merit her. 

1 " Tryphon," Act 4. 2 u Henry V," Act 2. 

3 "Henry III," Act 2, Sc. 1. 
* "Tryphon," Act 3. 



SENTIMENT 117 

And to obtain, not merit her, will prove 
Less than to lose her, and deserve her Love. 
'Tis worthy of my Flame, and of her Eyes, 
To make Love be to Love a Sacrifice." ^ 

The distinctive feature of heroic love is that it 
nullifies all other ideals in the lover, and makes 
him its absolute slave. Whether it be good 
or evil depends on the previous character of the 
man, though the lady concerned may often turn 
the balance. 

There is some difference of sentiment in 
regard to the possibility and desirability of 
constancy. 

" Cleopatra. Oh, tell me first, have you been e'er in love ? 

Hermione. Why, Madam, do you ask ? 

Cleopatra. Because I know, 

That none can ease my Pain, that is not so. 

Hermione. I was ; but Love to Friendship did submit. 

Cleopatra. Ah ! 'twas not Love, if ought could conquer it. 
You lov'd not well, or knew his pow'r but ill, 
That say you are in Love, and are not still : 
The Name of Love for love itself you took, 
Since real Love can never be forsook. 
Had yours been true, you might as well have swore 
You do not live, as that you love no more." ^ 

" But Love, when scorn'd, is justly held a fault." ^ 

1 " Henry V," Act 2. 2 u Tryphon," Act 3. 

8 "Black Prince," Act 3. 



118 THE ENGLISH HEROIC PLAY 

In action, too, there is variance. But in the 
entire range of the heroic drama, with hardly an 
exception, the principal lovers are constant to 
each other, and sometimes the expression of 
constancy is adequately worthy of the feeling. 
Thus Almanzor repulses Lyndaraxa : 

" Fair though you are 
As summer mornings, and your eyes more bright 
Than stars that twinkle in a winter's night; 
Though you have eloquence to warm and move 
Cold age and praying hermits, into love ; 
Though Almahide with scorn rewards my care, — 
Yet, than to change, 'tis nobler to despair. 
My love's my soul ; and that from fate is free ; 
'Tis that nnchanged and deathless part of me." ^ 

Among the minor characters, moreover, there 
is more final faithfulness in practice than in 
theory, if the instances of a man's returning to 
his first love be taken into account. In 
"Henry III," " Marcelia," and the "English 
Princess" a king deserts one mistress for 
another. In each case he returns. The cause 
assigned for this action in the last-named play is 
his doubting the virtue of the second mistress, 
and consequently going back to the first ; but in 
all cases, as a matter of fact, he returns to the first 
1 " Conquest of Granada," Ft. 2, Act 3, Sc. 3. 



SENTIMENT 119 

without sincere renewal of affection, simply be- 
cause he cannot win the second, and so, in com- 
pliance with dramatic tradition, there is nothing 
else left him to do. Thus a return to constancy 
may in itself mean nothing, but may even bear 
the mark of superficiality and insincerity. 

Jealousy occupies a subordinate place in the 
heroic drama as a whole, for the reason that 
it is a characteristic of the inner being, and 
this drama deals primarily with the external. 
The lover is busy outri vailing his rival in 
ways most acceptable to the lady, or in phy- 
sical combat against the enemy ; and in the 
event of victory in either case, he believes 
marriage the reward, and he is not often in a posi- 
tion to question, or to have a right to question 
the attitude of the lady toward himself. 

" Examine jealousie and it will prove 
To be the careful tenderness of love. 
It can no sooner than Celestial fire 
Be either quench'd, or of itself expire." ^ 

Chorus of Wives 

1 

" 1. This cursed jealousie, what is't ? 
2. 'Tis Love that has lost itself in a Mist. 

1 " Siege of Rhodes," Pt. 2, Act 1. 



120 THE ENGLISH HEROIC PLAY 

3. 'Tis Love being frightened out of his wits. 

4. 'Tis Love that has a fever got ; 
Love that is violently hot ; 

But troubled with cold and trembling fits. 
'Tis yet a more unnatural evil : 

Chorus. ' Tis the God of Love, 'tis the God of Love, 
possest with a devil. 



1. 'Tis rich corrupted Wine of Love, 
Which sharpest Vinegar does prove. 

2. From all the sweet Flowers which might Honey 
make, 

It does a deadly poyson bring. 

3. Strange serpent which itself doth sting! 

4. It never can sleep, and dreams still awake. 

5. It stuffs up the Marriage-bed with thorns. 
Chorus. It gores itself, it gores itself, with imagin'd 

horns." ^ 

" He is with jealousie possest, 
That Arrow, once withdrawn, must ever rove. 
O weakness, sprung from mightiness of Love." ^ 

Aureng-Zebe is an especially jealous lover, and 
some attention is given to the subject in the 
play. 

" Small jealousies, 'tis true, inflame desire ; 
Too great, not fan, but quite blow out the fire." ^ 

1 " Siege of Rhodes," 4th Entry. 2 /^j-^. 

3 "Aureng-Zebe," Act 4, Sc. 1. 



SENTIMENT 121 

Orrery's Tudor soliloquizes upon this passion in 
these lines : 

" But, Fate, thou art unjust in making me 
To quit the Love, yet keep the jealousy ; 
Which is of Love's fair tree the foulest Fruit, 
A branch whose Nourishment offends the Root. 
Shall Jealousy a Power o'er Judgment gain, 
Tho' it does only in the Fancy reign ? 
With Knowledge thou art inconsistent still. 
The Mind's foul Monster, whom Fair Truth does kill. 
Thy Tyranny subverts e'en Nature's Laws ; 
For oft thou hast Effects without a cause ; 
And, which thy strength or weakness does detect, 
Thou often hast a cause without Effect. 
In all thou dost, thou ever dost amiss ; 
Seest what is not, or seest not that which is. 
Whilst thou dost live, Sickness does thee pursue ; 
And he who cures thee, needs must kill thee too." ^ 

Next to love, honor is commonly supposed to 
be the most considerable element in the heroic 
drama. The mere use of the term "heroic," 
with which love and honor are traditionally 
associated, is unquestionably responsible for this 
popular misconception. For honor is only spe- 
ciously an important feature, as, notwithstand- 
ing the usual connotations with it of certain 
ideals, the heroic play was too late a growth to 

1 "Henry V," Act 4. 



122 THE ENGLISH HEROIC PLAY 

have the element of honor either of great 
extent or of vital nature. 

The word is used in two senses : as synony- 
mous with spiritual virtue, and as a course of 
human conduct prescribed by a code. As the 
latter, it impels a man to fight to defend a 

woman. 

" Har. Jun. Yet yield me Ysabinda, and be safe. 

Tow. I'll fight myself all scarlet over first ; 
Were there no love, or no revenge, 
I could not now desist, in point of honour." ^ 

Least of all may a man fight a woman, even 
though she be a warrior, and challenge him. 

" As thou art a woman I am Crost, 
And all the hopes of my revenge is lost: 
For to that Sex my honour makes me bend, 
Not fight against but with my blood defend." ^ 

It regulates the etiquette of rivals. 

" Since we are rivals, honour does command 
We should not die but by each other's hand." ^ 

It must be confessed, however, that " Honour's 
precepts,"* anything that implies the existence 

1 "Amboyna, or the Cruelties of the Dutch to the Eng- 
lish Merchants." By John Dry den. 1673. Act 4, Sc. 3. 

2 " Siege of Memphis," Act 1, Sc. 2. 

8 " Conquest of Granada," Pt. 2, Act 4. 
* " Aureng-Zebe," Act 2, Sc. 1. 



SENTIMENT 123 

of a code or " Rules of Honour," ^ is but rarely 
spoken of, and never in a manner to attract, 
much less compel, attention. 

In other words, the heroic drama, in the ex- 
pression of sentiment, is not chivalrous. It is 
this that identifies it in spirit with the court 
for which it was written, and divorces it from 
kindred continental types. There is perhaps 
not more than a single mention of chivalry 
throughout its pages, and that is where Moarun 
refers to his sword as 

" This brave badge of Chivalry." ^ 

None of the heroes is vital enough, or in the 
true sense honorable enough, to reveal any of 
that fine essence of gentlemanhood by which the 
popular conception of chivalry is hallowed. As 
Courthope says, " Of the two great principles 
of Love and Honour, . . . one was now held to 
be non-existent, and the other was utterly per- 
verted. ... If ever there was a time when the 
instincts of chivalrous action (were) discour- 
aged, it was in the reign of Charles II." ^ The 

1 " Herod the Great," Act 2. 

2 " Siege of Memphis," Act 1, Sc. 2. 

' W. J. Courthope, "Addison," English Men of Letters 
Series, pp. 12, 13. 



124 THE ENGLISH HEROIC PLAY 

inspiration was too distant and the age was too 
unsympathetic for such an ideal. Honor is also 
used as synonymous with virtue, virtue mean- 
ing chastity in woman, and, in man, bravery in 
battle and loyalty to the state. 

"Honour is colder virtue set on fire."^ 
It is 

" A raging fit of virtue in the souL" ^ 

This is the usual meaning of the word in the 
heroic play. But whether as a code or as vir- 
tue it is more often contemned than respected. 
Dryden's dispraise of the code was the result 
of reflection, not accidental, and is shown both 
in his critical and creative work. He says, 
"You see how little . . . great authors . . . 
esteem the point of honor, so much magnified by 
the French, and so ridiculously aped by us."^ 

" The points of honour poets may produce ; 
Trappings of life, for ornament not use : 
Honour which only does the name advance, 
Is the mere raving madness of romance." * 

1 " Siege of Rhodes," Ft. 1, 1st Entry. 

2 " Indian Emperor," Act 2, Sc. 2. 

3 Dry den, " Essay on Heroic Plays." 

4 " Aureng-Zebe," Act 2. Sc. 1. 



SENTIMENT 125 

But as virtue, also, honor is sneered at,^ both 
by Dryden and other heroic dramatists. 

" Honour is bat an itch in youthful blood, 
Of doing things extravagantly good. 
We call that virtue which is only heat 
That reigns in youth, till age finds out the cheat." ^ 

" If, when a crown and mistress are in place, 
Virtue intrudes with her lean holy face, 
Virtue's then mine and not I virtue's foe. 
Why does she come where she has nought to do ? " ^ 

Honor is not an ever present note in the heroic 
drama, but when it occurs it is usually placed 
in opposition to love, and almost invariably to 
its own disadvantage. Cortez' determination 
to follow love, when face to face with the two 
passions, is typical. 

" Honour, be gone ! What art thou but a breath ? 
I'll live proud of my infamy and shame. 
Graced with no triumph but a lover's name ; " * 

1 For praise of honor, on the other hand, cf. " Aureng- 
Zebe," Act 5, Sc. 1 ; " Siege of Rhodes," 3d Entry; " Ama- 
zon Queen," Act 3, Sc. 1; "Don Carlos," Act 4, Sc. 1, 
and Orrery, passirn. 

2 "Indian Queen," by Sir Robert Howard and John 
Dryden, 1665. Act 3, Sc. 1. 

3 " Conquest of Granada," Ft. 1, Act 2, Sc. 1. - 
* " Indian Emperor," Act 2, Sc. 2. 



126 THE ENGLISH HEROIC PLAY 

Yet those who disregard honor and give them- 
selves up to love cannot escape a consciousness 
of baseness and seek to gloss it over by dwell- 
ing upon the "nobility" of the passion that 
enslaves them. The speech of Montezuma in 
the " Indian Emperor " represents the kind of 
sophistication by which the heroes endeavor 
to justify themselves : 

" Not that I fear the utmost fate can do 
Come I the event of doubtful war to know ; 

******* 
My motive from a nobler cause does spring. 
Love rules my heart, and is your monarch's king; 
I more desire to know Almeria's mind, 
Than all that heaven has for my state designed." ^ 

There are occasionally exceptions to the gen- 
eral rale that love triumphs over honor and 
every other duty or passion. The "Indian 
Emperor " satisfactorily illustrates both rule 
and exception. In four of the characters of this 
play love and honor are conflicting motives. 
Three of the four succumb to love. The 
fourth, Guyomar, in the presence of his mis- 
tress, Alibech, declares his allegiance to honor. 
The lady, who holds the orthodox doctrine of 

1 " Indian Emperor," Act 2, Sc. 1. 



SENTIMENT 127 

heroic love, scorns a suitor who is not passion's 
slave, and promptly gives him his dismissal : 

" Guy. What I have heard I blush to hear : and grieve, 
Those words you spoke I must your words believe. 
I to do this ! I whom you once thought brave, 
To sell my country and my king enslave ? 
All I have done by one foul act deface, 
And yield my right to you by turning base ? 
What more could Odmar wish that I should do, 
To lose your love than you persuade me to ? 
No, Madam, no, I never can commit 
A deed so ill, nor can you suffer it : 
*Tis but to try what virtue you can find 
Lodged in my soul. 

******* 

Alib. In all debates you plainly let me see 
You love your virtue best, but Odmar me : 
Go, your mistaken piety pursue." ^ 

Although Almahide, in the "Conquest of 
Granada," like most heroines, remains true to 
her husband, yet love and the lover's position 
are exalted to that degree over everything else 
in the world that it is possible for Almanzor, 
representing the type, thus to address the hus- 
band of the woman he loves without detriment 
to his own heroic character : 

" Your love and honour ! mine are ruined worse : 
Furies and hell ! — What right have you to curse ? 

1 Ibid. Act 4, Sc. 2. 



128 THE ENGLISH HEROIC PLAY 

Dull husband as you are, 

What can your love, or what your honour be ? 

I am her lover, and she's false to me." ^ 

Heroic love is then the greatest element in the 
heroic play. It permeates the whole. It 
moulds other elements into itself, or sinks 
them into insignificance, and the few instances 
in which importance is attached to them may 
be considered either as a sign of individual 
originality, or at least as a departure from the 
customary sources of inspiration. 

II. Reason 

In the Epistle to the Reader prefixed to the 
"Destruction of Jerusalem "^ the author says: 

"But perhaps a man ought not to talk rea- 
son in love : I confess since love has got the sole 
possession of the stage, reason has had little to 
do there ; that effeminate prince has softened and 
emasculated us the vassals of the stage. The 
reason why the off-spring of the moderns are 
such short-liv'd things, is because the Genii that 
beget 'em are so given to women ; they court 
nothing but the ladies' favours, with them they 
waste all their strength, whenas the lusty an- 

1 ** Conquest of Granada," Pt. 2, Act 4, Sc. 3. 

2 "Destruction of Jerusalem, by Titus Vespasian." In 
Two Parts. By John Crowne. 1677. 



SENTIMENT 129 

cients who fed on the wholesome diet of good 
sense, and used themselves to the strong manly 
exercises of reason have been the Fathers of 
vigorous issue, who have lived longer then the 
oldest Patriarchs, and are like to live as long as 
there are men. I, who am a friend both to love 
and good sense, endeavoured to reconcile 'em, 
and to bring reason into favour, not with hopes to 
rule ; I desired only to procure him some little 
office in the stage, but I find it made an uproar, 
love would not endure such an innovation, it 
threatned his settled government; and reason 
is not at all popular ; the ladies knew not what 
to make of his conversation, and the men gen- 
erally sleep at it ; that I see but little hopes of 
his preferment, which I am sorry for, since what 
future being I shall enjoy, I shall owe solely to 
him. Titus and Berenice as great gallants as 
they have been in France, and as good a shew 
as they have made in England, have not such a 
substantial fortune to maintain them for future 
ages, but I am afraid will be reduced to depend 
on Phraartes for a livelihood. The whinings 
of love, like a pretty new tune, please for a 
while, but are soon laid aside, and never thought 
of more ; the same notes perhaps may help to 
compose another, but the old air is altered, and 
forever forgotten." 

Championing reason's cause is, then, unusual. 

" Oh ! Why is Love call'd Nature's highest Law, 
When Title, Man's Invention, does it awe? 



130 THE ENGLISH HEROIC PLAY 

But 'tis the Strength which reason does impart, 

That makes my Blood give Rules thus to my Heart. 

If Nature Reason on us did bestow, 

Love, Nature's Dictate, 'twould not overthrow. 

But Reason is a bright resistless Fire, 

Which Heaven, not Nature does in us inspire. 

It is not Nature's Child, but Nature's King, 

And o'er Love's Height does us to Glory bring. 

As Bodies are below, and Souls above. 

So much should Reason be preferred to Love : 

Since Glory is the Souls most proper Sphere, 

It does but wander, when it moves not there." ^ 

More commonly there is an exaltation of love 
over reason, and a consciousness of their in- 
compatibility. 

" Ahdal. Reason was given to curb our headstrong will. 

Zul. Reason but shows a weak physician's skill, 
Gives nothing while the raging fit does last. 
But stays to cure it, when the worst is past. 
Reason's a staff for age, when nature's gone 
But youth is strong enough to walk alone.^ 
Love ne'er was to Reason's Rules confined.^ 
To one in Love do not of Reason speak ; 
For Love is never strong, till Reason's weak." ^ 

But according to some, Reason cures Love and 
succeeds it. 

1 "Henry V," Act 2. 

2 " Conquest of Granada," Ft. 1, Act 2, So. 1. 
8 "Black Prince," Act 3. 

* " Tryphon," Act 5. 



SENTIMENT 131 

" Her coyness has made me her Sex abjure, 
Where kindness is not, Reason is my cure,^ 
But Reason having now regain'd 
That Throne where Passion lately reign'd ; 
Those Beauties which did charm, 
Now may delight, but cannot harm." ^ 



III. Woman 

The heroic drama takes it for granted that 
reason plays a small part where woman is con- 
cerned. 

^' Abner. May it not, Sir, provoke her to despair. 
Seeing another in that Glory share ? 

Herod. Perhaps it may — perhaps too — it may not, 
Few women are by Reason lost or got." ^ 

Man's superiority in other respects also is taken 
for granted. The following is more than the 
expression of an individual : 

" I've thought his sister worthy of my love, 
And shall descend t'accept her as my bride, 
If I'm petition'd for't on every side." * 

There is little verbal evidence of regard for 

female virtue. 

'* Madam, I go ; but go so charm'd from hence, 
Both by your Eyes and vertues influence, 

1 " Altemira," Act 2. 2 jj^icl. 

« " Herod the Great," Act 1. * " Charles VIII," Act. 1. 



132 THE ENGLISH HEROIC PLAY 

That 'tis impossible for me to know 
To which I most of Adoration owe." ^ 

But the more usual thought, prominent in 
Dryden, is the denunciation of virtue, par- 
ticularly of virtuous marriage, because of its 
interference with love. 

" In vain of pompous chastity y' are proud ; 
Virtue's adultery of the tongue, when loud, 
I, with less pain, a prostitute could bear, 
Than the shrill sound of — Virtue ! Virtue ! hear. 
In unchaste wives 

There's yet a kind of recompensing ease; 
Vice keeps them humble, gives them care to please ; 
But against clamorous virtue what defense? 
It stops our mouths and gives your noise pretense. " ^ 

" Love scorns all ties but those that are his owm. 
Chains that are dragged must needs uneasy prove 
For there's a godlike liberty in love." ^ 

*' Love is a god, and like a god should be 
Inconstant with unbounded liberty, 
Rove as he list — " ■* 

" Marriage, thou curse of love and snare of life, 
That first debased a mistress to a wife ! " ^ 

1 "Henry V," Acts. 

2 " Aureng-Zebe," Act 2, Sc. 1. 

« Ihid. ^ " Don Carlos," Act 3, Sc. 1. 

6 " Conquest of Granada," Pt. 2, Act 3, Sc. 1. 



SENTIMENT 133 

It is but one step to the curse of the sex, 
although there are not many such curses. 

" Ah ! Traitress ! Ah, Ingrate ! Ah, faithless mind I 
Ah, sex, invented first to damn mankind ! 
Nature took care to dress you up for sin ; 
Adorned without ; unfinished left, within. 
Hence by no judgment you your loves direct ; 
Talk much, ne'er think, and still the wrong affect. 
So much self love in your composure's mixed, 
That love to others still remains unfixed ; 
Greatness, and noise, and show, are your delight." ^ 

In spite of the exaltation of love, there is not 
much laudation of womankind in the abstract ; 
such laudation is rather of individuals. 

These plays are not " problem plays." 
There is but one suggestion of a nineteenth- 
century remonstrance. 

" Sehast. But hold, I wrong Eugenia, if I blame 
Her, and not you alone, for all her shame. 
You rob'd her of her Chastity by force. 
Though fear of shame still kept her from remorse. 

Fran. Pish ! Force ! That was her policy to you, 
She did no more than what all Women do. 
Seem to resist what they do most desire. 
To raise the flame, yet seem to cool the fire ; 
Believe this Truth, Sebastian, Women can 
Resist it, and perform it more than man. 

1 " Aureng-Zebe," Act 4, Sc. 1. 



134 THE ENGLISH HEROIC PLAY 

Sebast. Thus like the Devils we at first betray 
Their Innocence, then blame on them we lay; 
As if their guilt could have another cause 
Than that which it from our Temptation draws." ^ 

Though woman's role be a leading one, and 
love, her proverbial domain, the eternal theme, 
analysis of this passion and analysis of her 
character are lacking. The impression of 
blankness on the mind is caused not posi- 
tively, but rather negatively, by what is not 
said. What is affirmed of her is for the most 
part conventional; man's superiority, woman's 
unreasonableness, dispraise of marriage, though 
virtue is oftener avoided than discussed. There 
is no ideal of womanhood at all at issue ; 
children are not introduced, nor is there men- 
tion of any kind of domestic life ; nor is 
there differentiation between woman and man 
in occupation or morals. She is neither better 
nor worse than he ; there is no deceit, treachery, 
murder, or any manner of crime in which she 
may not partake. Love and war are the only 
spheres of action ; in tl^e first she ever is, and 
amazons, professional or amateur, are common. 

1 "Eatal Jealousie," Act 3. 



SENTIMENT 135 

IV. Friendship 

In the strife between love and honor, honor 
as a dramatic motive frequently takes the place 
of or is synonymous with friendship. Hence 
the relation between love and friendship is 
identical with that between love and honor. 
As a sentiment friendship exhibits greater 
variety than love, inasmuch as there are no 
shades of gradation, no degrees in heroic love ; 
one lover does not differ from another in zeal, 
but each loves to the utmost, as no one, accord- 
ing to himself, had ever done before. 

Love is unconnected with any other passion, 
while friendship is often allied with the sense 
of duty toward a sovereign, and always, ex- 
cept in one important instance, it is intimately 
and paradoxically associated with rivalry in 
love. In degree, moreover, it varies from the 
mutual formal regard of courtiers, through 
the relation between confidant and master or 
mistress, of subject to emperor, of companion- 
ship among equals, to an intense affectionate 
devotion. 

Owen Tudor, an Englishman in the train of 
Henry V, is at the beginning of the play a re- 



136 THE ENGLISH HEROIC PLAY 

jected suitor. of Princess Katharine of France. 
That, in itself, would not make him despair, 
but the king loves the same lady and became 
enamored of her in the first place through his 
subject's description. In ignorance of Tudor's 
passion the king requests him to go to Katharine 
as a messenger of love from himself, 

" That my Friend should let my Princess know 
My flames are such as martyr'd Saints sustain." ^ 

Owen does this. Afterwards he becomes so 
melancholy that the king, for friendship's sake, 
desires to know the source of his grief, and on 
much petitioning is told. Whereupon he re- 
solves to do as much for Tudor as has been 
done for himself, which is no less than to plead 
his rival's cause before the princess. 

This situation is an adequate illustration of 
the indissoluble connection between friendship 
and loyalty to a king. The same relation exists 
in other plays, but this is its most striking in- 
stance. The two sentiments are mixed; they 
are associated together, but the spiritual supe- 
riority of the former over the latter is insisted 
upon. The mutual faithfulness of the men 

i"Henry V," Act2. 



SENTIMENT 137 

is prominent ; rivalry is the channel of the ex- 
pression of this devotion which shows itself in 
their fairness toward each other, and, is aug- 
mented on Tudor's part by a sense of justice in 
resolving upon his self-sacrificing course through 
realization of his monarch's greater worth as 
a man. 

There is a conception of the use of friends, 

" For Ease of Sorrow, Friends from Heav'n were sent " ; 

and abstract meditation on the subject of friend- 
ship, as of the other elemental passions, is a 
feature of most concrete instances, where the 
type is embodied. There are certain plays, 
themselves conspicuously heroic, which contain 
an element of friendship noticeable in itself. 
Some of these instances are remarkable, and 
for this reason a consideration of friendship 
as a phase of heroic sentiment is assured. 
Nevertheless, it is its prominence in individ- 
ual plays rather than its presence in the body 
at large that entitles it to consideration. For 
it is not in all the plays but is confined to 
the compositions of a few men. Pordage and 
Bankes are among them, and in Orrery it is so 
much in evidence as to leave the impression of 



138 THE ENGLISH HEROIC PLAY 

an individual characteristic. The constant 
repetition in his work of situations, the subject 
of which is friendship, is very noticeable, and is 
plainly a defect. 

The fact that friendship as a prominent ele- 
ment of dramatic interest is confined to a few 
plays, in contrast to the mass of heroic senti- 
ment which is peculiar to no one, tAvo, or three 
writers, but was of universal use, suggests orig- 
inality, and in the narrow sense of implying 
a distinguishing trait between Orrery and his 
dramatic contemporaries the suggestion is valid 
enough. But a plea for originality applied to 
any phase of the English heroic drama must 
needs be made cautiously. 

V. The People 

The following extracts indicate how thor- 
oughly anti-democratic the sentiment of the 
heroic drama is. Oroondates and his confi- 
dant, on mention of the ambassadors, express 
themselves as to the common people in this 
manner : 

^'■Ara. 'Twere fit you talk'd of something that procures 
A grateful peace with your Ambassadors. 



SENTIMENT 139 

Oroo. These are the furies of the people's Brain, 
That dare to sit upon a monarch's raign ; 
Not all the fire, nor all the fiends of Hell 
Can act the rage that in Plebeians dwell; 
When they are mad and know not what 'tis for, 
Like winds they bustle, and like waves they roar; 
On those above 'em look with Envies stings, 
And mad because they cannot all be Kings. 

Ara. At Kings they let their gorged stomachs fly, 
Belching out treason, sprung from Luxury, 
Behold with censures still bright Majesty ; 
As base astronomers look up and pray 
Into the glorious Planets of the sky. 

Oroo. Mercy the curse of Monarchs in this age, 
That breeds this plague, that shou'd be quell'd by rage ; 
I'le like a Lion shake my angry locks 
And fright the Souls out of this Coward Herd, 
And make them put their Necks into their Yoaks — 

Amh. Great Prince — 

Oroo. Begone — You shall have your reward, 
You thought me dead, or els from pow'r debar'd ; — 
I'le send you home with Chaines upon your feet. 
With that reward you shall your Masters greet. 

{^Exeunt Amb. hawing." * 

The old emperor in " Aureng-Zebe " calls 

" The vulgar, a scarce animated clod. 
Ne'er pleased with aught above them, prince or God." ^ 

And the hero says, 

" The people's love so little I esteem." ^ 

1 "Rival Kings," Act 4. 

2 "Aureng-Zebe," Act 3, Sc. 1. ^ Ibid. 



140 THE ENGLISH HEROIC PLAY 

Such are some of the statements. As a 
matter of fact, verbal anti-democratic expres- 
sions are not numerous, but that there are 
none contradictory in sentiment to the above 
strengthens the case. It may be recalled 
that Shakespeare repeatedly puts into the 
mouths of many characters words equally 
derogatory to the merit of everyday citizens, 
the difference being that in him the citizen's 
cause is championed, even though unfairly, both 
by the presence of citizens upon the stage, and 
also their utterance of certain sentiments that 
are sufficient at least to arouse discussion. In 
other words the people are discussed, if not im- 
partially championed, in Shakespeare. But in 
the heroic drama there is no such discussion. 
There is no appearance of a representative of 
the people, and they themselves are as a rule 
completely left out of consideration. 

VI. Patriotism 

Patriotism is shown in the heroic play either 
by the author laying the scene of his literary 
labors in his own country, or, less superficially, 
in the repetition of the virtues of Englishmen. 

There are four English plays with English 



SENTIMENT 141 

scene and theme. ^ In them, if anywhere, pre- 
supposition of the presence of the patriotic note 
is most natural. " Edgar, or The English 
Monarch" augurs well for a title. But here 
is nothing English except the names, although 
the Advertisement has it that " The Histories 
examined, nothing in the Fable can seem Ro- 
mantick or affected. But I must appeal from 
the late Epitomizers, who make Edgar point- 
blank guilty of Ethelwold's Death, without 
any sufficient ground from Antiquity." 

To the modern reader the fable does seem 
affected ; the characters influence it, and it is 
expressly stated as to Edgar that 

" Unking'd, in Love, we represent him here." ^ 

His kingship is not concerned. He is a lover, 
the lover, nor more nor less. In the play itself 
there is not even a shadow of a patriotic senti- 
ment. In the prologue to a tragedy three years 
earlier than " Edgar " is this auspicious an- 
nouncement : 

" To plain Hollinshead and downright Stow 
We the coarse web of our Contrivance owe. 

1 "Black Prince," "Edgar," "English Princess," 
"Boadicea." 

2 " Edgar." Address to the King. 



142 THE ENGLISH HEROIC PLAY 

Greece, the first Mistress of the Tragic Muse, 

To grace her Stage did her own Heroes chuse ; 

Their pens adorn'd their Native Swords ; and thus 

What was not Grecian past for Barbarous. 

On us our Country the same duty lays, 

And English Wit should English Valour raise. 

Why should our Land to any Land submit 

In choice of heroes, or in height of wit? 

This made him write, who never writ till now, 

Only to show what better pens should do. 

And for his pains he hopes he shall be thought 

(Though a bad Poet) a good Patriot." i 

Disappointment follows — truly not in the ex- 
pectation of "bad poetry," which is realized 
perfectly. The play is English, in the sense 
that " The Persons," as the cast is called, bear 
historical names, in some mention of events and 
places, and in preserving the outline of the 
popular story of the latter years and death of 
Richard III, but laudation of country or coun- 
trymen is too slight to notice. 

The author's implication that he was doing 
something new in treating British history does 
not seem to have been strictly just to one of 
his illustrious contemporaries, for the " History 
of Henry V," written in rhyme, was acted in 

1 "English Princess." 



SENTIMENT 143 

1664, and in it, inconsiderable as praise of 
countrymen and countrywomen is, there is 
more than in the "English Princess." 

" But Fame can want no Theme, when she does sing 
Of English Swords led by an English King " 

" England still affords 
Beauties resistless as the English Swords." ^ 

The French Queen chides her counsellor for 
esteeming their foes too highly, but he answers 
" Ourselves we best excuse in praising them." ^ 

But Caryl's inference was probably true in 
a more narrowly literal sense, as the scene of 
" Henry V " is laid in France, and it is more- 
over a " History," while the only " Heroic 
Tragedy " treating an English theme, with 
scene in England, that would have a claim to 
priority, is the " Black Prince," also by Orrery, 
which was produced six months after the " Eng- 
lish Princess."^ 

One play has no more patriotism than the 
other, in spite of their prologues. That of the 
"Black Prince" is "Spoken by the Genius 

1 " Henry V," Act 1. 2 ma. 

8 The obvious but inconsequential comparison between 
Caryl and Shakespeare in this single respect was made by 
Warburton and amplified by Genest. Cf. Genest, i. 74. 



144 THE ENGLISH HEROIC PLAY 

of England, holding a Trident in one Hand, 
and a Sword in the other." 

" Is England's Genius, that victorous name, 
Which shakes the World, and fills the mouth of Fame, 
So much forgot, as you misspend your Wit 
(Which my great Deeds as gentle might have writ) 
To court a Fancy, or improve a Dream, 
And seek new Worlds for a less noble theme? 
Can you in arms conspiring Nations see, 
And think on anything but Fame and me ? 

This Sword, which in French blood so often dy'd, 
Intail'd Success on the young Edward's Side, 
Resigned to you, shall all those Arts exceed, 
Which made him triumph, aud that Kingdom bleed. 
Their frighted lilies shall confess their Loss, 
Wearing the crimson Liv'ry of your Cross ; 
And all the World shall learn by their Defeat, 
Our Charles, not theirs, deserves the name of Great." 

Thus among the earliest of the rhymed trage- 
dies there were two as native in subject as their 
manner was foreign — the manner became fash- 
ionable, and dozens of plays were so written, 
but native matter was of infrequent recurrence. 
There was, besides, " Boadicea, Queen of Brit- 
ain." ^ But in this play the patriotic note, 
which consists of lauding the bravery of the 

1 "Boadicea, Queen of Britain." By Charles Hopkins. 
1697. 



SENTIMENT 145 

natives, is neither prominent nor otherwise 
remarkable. 

The single play in which Dryden had a legit- 
imate right to express patriotism was "Am- 
boyna," a political pamphlet in dramatic form, 
where his loyalty to country as opposed to 
political loyalty is shown by making the Eng- 
lishmen in the play models of all that is vir- 
tuous — the more sharply to contrast them with 
the perfidious Dutch — and by seldom inserted 
lines, such as 

" Wounds but awaken English courage." ^ 

The dramas with English scene reveal no 
patriotism in content; the story of a British 
king's conquest of the French country and 
princess contains very little more. In " Henry 
III," however, where all the characters, the scene, 
and theme are French, the English patriotism of 
the author is more in evidence than in all the 
other plays combined. 

" His scenes, such as they are, in France are laid ; 
Where you may see the ancient English Trade, 
Either in beating France or giving aid. 
Such vertue reign'd then in our smiles or frowns, 
Those did defend, as these could conquer crowns. 

1 " Amboyna," Act 4, Sc. 3. 



146 THE ENGLISH HEROIC PLAY \ 

These Miracles were in Elizca's reign ; 

Whose left hand France and Holland did sustain, 

And whose right hand both baffled Rome and Spain. , 

Whilst England only could the World subdue; ] 

Nay, found a new one out, and reign'd there too ; 

Judge then what now Great Brittany may do ! ; 

Since now her helm a greater Prince does guide ! 

Who has th' advantage of his Sex beside. j 

The here our poet rather would make known j 

His country's reputation than his own. " ^ I 

Two Frenchmen are speaking of English '\ 

prowess and of Elizabeth. ; 

■! 

" Car. Yet Heav'n reveng'd our wrongs ; as witness bear ] 

The English Lions ; who so oft did tear , 

Our lilies from their stems ; and did advance ; 

Their ensigns on our walls, and conquer'd France. \ 

Guise. Look but how judgment prosecutes them stilll ] 
What England once has done, again she will. 

That British harpy, who robs all the gain, ; 

And watches o'er the golden Mines of Spain ; j 

Whose Canvas wings about the World have flown, \ 

As by that charm she'd circle in her own. ■ 

A Virgin ! Who her neighb'ring Kings outbraves, i 

Scorning to match with her intended slaves. i 

This Heretick, this Woman, dares combine I 

Against our League, and with Navar does join." ^ '. 

The bravery of the English and their queen is j 

dwelt on. 1 

1 " Henry HI. ' ' Prologue. '' 

2 Ibid. Act 1, Sc. 1. 



SENTIMENT 147 

" Cap. Th' English (valianter perchance than wise) 
Bravely defi'd 'em scorning a surprise. 
But a Defiance that their rage became ; 
Whose words were Bullets, and whose breath was flame. 

y^ y^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ 

King. The brav'ry of these English are so great 
It is no shame that us so oft they beat. 

******* 

Nav. That British Heroine, without controul, 
Asserts the truth, no Sex is in the soul. 
Valiant and wise as Pallas does appear ; 
A Goddess arm'd with beauty and a Spear. 

******* 

Cap. France, Scotland, Ireland, Flanders, Holland 
boasts 
The sev'ral Ships surprised upon their Coasts. 
The British Lyons glutted, took their rests. 
Vouchsafing offals to the lesser Beasts. 

Nav. Thus in a word th' effects of seven years cost, 
By English valor in seven days were lost. 

King. The World shall never, nor has ever seen 
A braver Nation or a braver Queen. 
Her Neighbors justly may receive her Law. 
Since she rules those who keep the World in awe." ^ 

Joan of Orleans was learned in " Necromantick 
art," and therefore it was that her 

" Powerful charms made the English quit the field ; 
No mortal force else could have made 'em yield." 2 

1 Ibid. Act 4, Sc. 1. 

2 Ibid. Act 2, Sc. 2. 



148 THE ENGLISH HEROIC PLAY 

VII. Summary 

This kind of drama is so permeated with the 
spirit of heroic love that other elements are 
always secondary, and investigation reveals 
only the extent of their comparative insignifi- 
cance. The note of patriotism which might be 
expected from the mere titles of some of the 
plays, and which would strengthen the case of 
the native as opposed to the foreign constitu- 
tion of the species, is the more noticeable 
wherever it is heard, because not general. 
The treatment of woman was inspired by a 
moribund literary tradition which could not 
give her the vitality either of sixteenth or of 
eighteenth century creations. The restriction 
of all characters to a single social class — that of 
illustrious birth — shows how exceedingly nar- 
row the sphere of the heroic play was in its 
sympathies, and consequently how few the 
ideas must be, and what a limited compass they 
had to range in. Love and honor were the 
only themes, and by honor was meant all that 
was not love, and no matter under what name 
this went, whether war, ambition, reason, or 
friendship, it was considered as a form of honor; 



SENTIMENT 149 

its mission was only to act as a foil for the dis- 
play of love; and only in this comprehensive 
sense of honor representing all that was not love 
were love and honor the subjects of the heroic 
play. Love is invariable, permanent, and domi- 
nant. Honor is of varying importance. But 
under the name of friendship it reaches, espe- 
cially in Orrery, its highest and most influen- 
tial form. There the strife between it and 
love is a strife between equals, and honor is 
exalted. Usually, however, it loses the victory : 

" Honour to this exploit would me soon call, 
But that love's Magick does surmount it all." ^ 

So a discussion of the sentiment of the heroic 
play in its various forms of attitude toward 
ambition, reason, friends, country, and country- 
men must needs return to its starting-point — 
heroic love. 

The prologues and epilogues to these plays 
are perhaps the most fertile mine of informa- 
tion in regard to them. They frequently sug- 
gest that the dramatists themselves were quite 
aware of what they were doing in depicting 
this passion, aware of its power, of its un-Eng- 
lish origin, and of its recent importation : 
1 " Amazon Queen," Act 2, Sc. 2. 



150 THE ENGLISH HEROIC PLAY 

" How many has our Rhimer kill'd to day? 
What need of Siege and Conquest in a Play, 
When Love can do the work as well as they ? 
Yet 'tis such Love as you've scarce met before : 
Such Love I'm sure as English ground ne'er bore."^ 

1 "Ibrahim." Epilogue. 



CHAPTER V 

GENERAL TRAITS 

The English heroic drama has the greatest 
variety in its scene of action, its historical set- 
ting chronologically and geographically consid- 
ered. In time it extends from the " state of 
innocence " ^ to a period contemporary with its 
own rise. It were doubtless safer to confine its 
space to the earth, in spite of the frequency of 
supernatural intervention, and of the confident 
assertion by certain of the characters as to their 
control over their own actions after death. 
The hero struts over five continents, with little 
method in his journeyings. He is in England, 
France, Italy, Hungary, with a preference 
always for the imperfectly known and more 
remote lands. 

These plays may be classed with reference to 
their geography as Eastern or Oriental, and 

1 " State of Innocence and Fall of Man." By John Dry- 
den. 1674. 

151 



162 THE ENGLISH HEROIC PLAY 

Western or Occidental. The former group 
lays its scenes in Asia, Africa, and the Moor- 
ish and Ottoman parts of Europe ; the latter, 
in classical and Christian Europe and America. 
Of the Eastern plays concerned with ancient 
subjects, " Antony and Cleopatra " and the 
" Siege of Memphis " are African ; the others 
are Asiatic. Sometimes the scene is pictur- 
esquely indefinite, as " The Banks of the River 
Thermidon, on the Borders of the Amazon's 
Country," but usually it is indicated by a single 
word, Eden, Persia, Syria, with Jerusalem and 
Babylon as centres. The stories of this class 
cover a period from the beginning of things 
to the fall of Jerusalem. There is, more- 
over, a modern Eastern group that lays its 
scenes in the centuries between the period indi- 
cated by the title of Settle's play, the " Con- 
quest of China by the Tartars, " and a time 
contemporary with the author of the plays 
themselves. The scenes of the modern as of 
the ancient group, are, in the main, Asiatic. 
Persia is common ground for both groups. In 
the modern group the action is played out 
among other lands in China, the East Indies 
and India, Morocco, the Island of Rliodes, 



GENERAL TRAITS 153 

Granada, Turkey, and the region where the 
Turks fought the Hungarians. 

The classical plays with a well-known histor- 
ical background are the " Destruction of Troy," 
" Caligula," and " Sophonisba," ^ a story of the 
Carthaginian wars. Maximin in " Tyrannick 
Love " is the Roman Emperor. The scene of 
the "Vestal Virgin" is of course Roman. 
The greater number of the modern Western 
plays are historical, sometimes written with 
obvious, though secondary, didactic purpose. 
Such are for Spain, the "Great Favourite, or 
the Duke of Lerma"; in connection with 
Italy, "Charles VIII of France." Peru and 
Mexico are the scenes of the " Indian Queen," 
and Mexico of the " Indian Emperor." 

There are several plays of French and Eng- 
lish history, treated either separately or inter- 
nationally. Such are " Henry III," the " Black 
Prince," " English Princess," " Edgar," " Mar- 
celia." The historical element varies in its 
conspicuousness and definiteness. In the " Eng- 
lish Princess " there is much the same cast as 
in Shakespeare's " Richard III " ; the histor- 

1 "Sophonisba, or Hannibal's Overthrow." By Nathan- 
iel Lee. 1676. 



154 THE ENGLISH HEROIC PLAY 

ical part in "Boadicea" and in "Edgar" is 
less familiar, and a little more vague; and 
in "Marcelia" there is only the statement 
that the scene is France and Sigismund is 
king. Most of the plays are serious. There 
are a few, however, in this group, in which 
the comedy element predominates. They are 
concerned with the present time, as is implied 
by the tone of " Marriage-a-la-Mode " and 
" Rival Ladies " ; and is directly stated in 
"Comical Revenge." In the first and second 
the scene is Sicily ; in the last named, be- 
cause of freer, less conventional treatment, 
London. 

The heroic element in a drama need not, 
and in fact not infrequently does not, dominate 
the whole composition; and consequently giv- 
ing attention to it in some cases draws one 
to the border-land of comedy. But a pure 
heroic play was commonly styled tragedy, and 
tragedy avoided then, as had always been 
its wont, native contemporary subjects. If 
the scene were England, as it often was, it 
was of a past age ; if the time were the 
present, as in " Aureng-Zebe," the scene was 
remote. 



GENERAL TRAITS 15& 

" But still the modest stage 
Forbears to represent the present age. 
Let forreign stories matter here supply, 
Old Tales and known are best for Tragedy." i 

Such was a seventeenth-century utterance of an 
established tradition ; but in practice it was 
regarded only partially — to the extent of keep- 
ing away from contemporary Christian Europe 
for matter. The idea of depicting the life of the 
age in serious drama did not obtain as yet, and 
consequently known Europe was, in a manner, 
sacred. But there was no other region that 
might not become at any time the scene of a 
"dramatic poem." For, conventional as this 
drama is for the most part in plot, character, 
diction, and sentiment, there seems to have been 
an adventurous desire, on the part of its authors, 
to enter upon new lands untrodden by their 
predecessors. Dryden, by temperament so fear- 
ful of being radical, chooses as the subject of a 
tragedy a contemporary prince, though of a far- 
off country, and the first English play whose 
scene is laid in America, is, doubtless, the 
" Indian Queen " of Dryden and Howard, with 
its conscious epilogue, 

1 Edw. Ravencroft's Epilogue to the "Conspiracy." 



156 THE ENGLISH HEROIC PLAY 

" You have seen all that this old world can do. 
We, therefore, try the fortune of the new." 

The *' Empress of Morocco" is another ex- 
ample. " This play, which for no other Merit, 
durst take Sanctuary here, throws itself at your 
Feet, as your Own ; the Story of which, I owe 
to your Hands, and your honorable Embassy 
into Affrica."^ While tragedy seldom dealt 
with contemporary subjects, and never unless 
the scene was ^remote, the domain of comedy 
was broader because of its traditional right to 
satirize its own land and age. 

The heroic drama is historical in the sense 
that, with few exceptions, there is sufficient 
foundation in fact to determine the approxi- 
mate time and place of action, — but often 
that is all. The name of the male protagonist, 
— Caligula, Richard III, Herod, — indicates as 
much. But the definiteness and completeness 
of this element vary in the entire body of plays 
as well as in that part dealing with French and 
English history exclusively. They vary in 
degree from such tales as that of Oroondates and 

1 Epistle Dedicatory to the Right Honourable Hgnry, Earl 
of Norwich and Earl-Marshall of England, etc., to the 
"Empress of Morocco." 



GENERAL TRAITS 157 

Statira, and the Mexican stories, which are on 
the border-land of fiction and romance, to plays 
like " Henry III " and " Henry V," in which 
the audience must have been instructed, would 
they or no, so abundant are the historical allu- 
sions. Such plays and their like remind one 
that the stage even then, though less than with 
the Elizabethans, must have been regarded as 
a popular medium for historical instruction. 
To be sure, this instruction frequently and most 
naturally is associated with the inculcation of 
patriotism. Since the historical background 
is essentially so meaningless, the twistings of 
facts are not to be wondered at, complaint 
against them is trite, and anachronisms are 
without significance. 

Notwithstanding the fact that many of the 
characters bear historical names, and their coun- 
try is nominally mentioned, the absence of scen- 
ery, character delineation, or diction, whereby 
to connect any drama with the soil of its scene 
of action is well-nigh complete. The reason 
for this is not far to seek. The poet's aim was 
to paint a hero. And his conception of a hero 
was arrived at from the prevailing fashionable 
literary tradition of love and honor, and it was 



158 THE ENGLISH HEROIC PLAY 

conceived without any regard to race whatso- 
ever. 

The neglect of racial traits possibly might 
pass without comment in a previous age. 
But it is pertinent to ask, although in vain, 
why that adventurous spirit which led drama- 
tists in successful search of new regions, new 
races, was not accompanied by the investigat- 
ing curiosity that should differentiate China, 
Mexico, Rome, one from another, and Chinese 
and Mexicans and Romans. There is no local 
color — nothing but nomenclature. Because 
of the " Ynca " one is supposed to be in Peru, 
because of the " wall " in China, and again, be- 
cause of " The actors' Names," 

" Fancy you have two hours iu Turkey been." ^ 

But even the actors' names are sometimes of no 
avail. In " Marcelia " the scene is France, and 
the characters, for aught said to the contrary, 
French ; but their names are non-committal ; 
Sigismund, Melinet, Lotharius, Euryalus, Al- 
meric, Valasco, Lucidore, Peregrine, Moripha- 
nus, Graculus, Du-Prette, Meraspas, Philam]3ras, 
Marcelia, Desha, Calinda, Erisinia, Arcasia, 

Perilla. 

1 ' ' Conspiracy. ' ' Epilogue. 



GENERAL TRAITS 159 

There is a variety in character ranging from 
vagueness and superficiality, of which examples 
are common, to clefiniteness and the result of 
thought, such as Solyman in "Mustapha"; and 
from the purely fictitious and semi-mythologi- 
cal to historical personages presented, like 
Caligula, somewhat in biographical detail. But 
this is apart from the question concerning char- 
acter delineation of racial traits. There is as 
little local color shown in the words and actions 
of the characters as there is of differentiation in 
the scene. Even such a bald statement as Perez*, 

" I am a Spaniard, Sir ; that implies honour," ^ 

is exceedingly rare. Zungteus is not Tartar, 
Achilles is not Greek ; and the monarchs of the 
various kingdoms of the earth, so far as vital 
relation to their native lands is concerned, 
might exchange thrones without fear of de- 
tection or of comment. 

The comedy of the period is notorious for 
impropriety of thought and language. The 
tragedy is the reverse of this. The prologues 
and epilogues to tragedies are sometimes in the 
comic manner, coarse and indecent ; but they 

1 " Amboyna," Act 2, Sc. 1. 



160 THE ENGLISH HEROIC PLAY 

are extraneous to the play itself, in which the 
language is as far removed as may be from 
the improper. There is very little even of a 
broader sort of gallantry than is now the fash- 
ion, but which might be found then and later 
in the strictest society. Contemporary comedy 
abounded in questionable situations. In the 
tragedy a bedroom scene, in which any import- 
ance attaches to the fact, as such, is rare indeed. 
There is one such instance in which the in- 
nocence of the characters concerned is finally 
proved,^ and there is another in which ladies 
are rescued from the boisterous rudeness of sol- 
diers.2 In Dryden moreover — seldom else- 

1 "Black Prince," Act 4. 

2 Enter First Soldier. 

" Sold, Two Ladies, Sir, are fall'n into our snare. 

Capt. Dost think I came with women to make War ? 

Sold. When seen, you'l think it much the safer choice 
To charge the strongest Regiment in Blois. 

Capt. Are they so beautiful ? 

Sold. Gad ! Captain, more 
Than you, or all the World e'r saw before. 

Capt. Go, bring 'em in. Sure they can do no harm. 

\^Exit Sold. 
I'm cold, and they may serve to make me warm. 

Enter Second Soldier with Ladies. 
Capt. Gad, beautiful ! Fair Lady, I'm for you ; 
The other you may share betwixt you two. 

[ They hand her. Arm. runs out. 



GENERAL TRAITS 161 

where — there are occasional scenes, in which 
the diction as well as the situation itself exhib- 
its sensuousness verging on sensuality. ^ 

In this body of plays there are not any adages 

Arm. Heav'n lend me Wings ! 

1st Sold. There after thee I'l flye, 
Rather than miss my Quarry. [Exit. 

M Sold. So will I. [Exit. 

Capt. Come, madam, come. [Hands Gabriel. 

Gab. What do you mean to do ? 

Capt. I am in Love. 

Gab. 'Tis now no time to woo. 

Bless me ! Your looks are strange. 

Capt. I mean to prove 
All ways, to quench my raging flames of Love. 

[Strives with her. 

Gab. I'l dye first. 

Capt. How ! Deny me such a bliss ; 
Which, when I have obtain'd, you cannot miss. 

Gab. Not miss mine Honour ? 

Capt. No, 'tis very right, 
No more than miss your shadow in the night. 
I am resolv'd. [Forces her out. 

Gab. Just Heav'n vouchsafe your aid 
Unto a Virgin treacherously betray 'd ! 

[Cries loudly as she's drag'' d forth. Exeunt. 

Enter Navar, arvri'd, with Soldiers. 

Nav. This way I heard the cry. 
[He pursues^ after clashing Swords, brings in Gabriel." 
— " Henry III," Act 2, Sc. 1. 

1 For example, " Aureng-Zebe," Act 4, Nourmahal's woo- 
ing of the hero. 



162 THE ENGLISH HEROIC PLAY 

and proverbs, but there is a goodly number 
of axioms and aphorisms. The play itself was 
supposed to be exalted above everyday life, 
with no intent of supplying the place of a 
manual of human conduct. The following are 
instances of such moral reflections : ^ 

" He only is above Envy and Fate 
Whose mind in sinking Fortunes keeps its height." ^ 

" In Fears Men sin, I scorn to be involv'd, 
What is it can resist a soul resolv'd ? " ^ 

" The valiant man is his own emperor." * 

"I find 
My timorous Flesh strives to infect my Mind." ^ 

Where such reflections abound it is inevit- 
able that they should sometimes break the 
confines of a line or couplet, and invade a scene. 
The result may be a discussion, as in the fol- 
lowing instance, where the relative claims of 
expediency, under the name of reason, and of 
justice are in question : 

1 A selection from Dryden is given by Holzhausen, E. S., 
xvi. 219. 

2 " Great Favorite," Act 4, concluding couplet. 
8 " Herod the Great," Act 1. 

* " Siege of Rhodes," 4th Entry. 
6 " Herod the Great," Act 1. 



GENERAL TRAITS 163 

" Charoloys. Have you forgot that Yow, Sir, which you 
made 
To th' English King, when France he did invade? 
That Vow is to your Honour still a Debt. 

Burgundy. A Statesman all but int'rest may forget, 
And only ought in his own Strength to trust : 
*Tis not a Statesman's Virtue to be just. 

Charoloys. Those Words which lately you in Council 
said, 
Have on my Breast a deep Impression made. 
You urg'd that Acts of Justice are alone 
What can preserve or must exalt a Throne. 
Is your own Counsel by yourself despisd ? 

Burgundy. I then for others, not myself, advis'd. 
Reason should still appoint us what to do. 

Charoloys. You'll find that Reason has Religion too ; 
Which is by Interchange of Justice shown. 
Doing to all what to yourself is done. 

Blamount. You measure Reason with a crooked line. 

Charoloys. High Reason to Religion does incline. 

Burgundy. I, Son, Reason of Cloisters, not of State ; 
Pow'r seldom is religious to that Height. 
Religion too, not Reason is, but Faith. 

Charoloys. I fear. Sir, if such dang'rous Ways you chuse, 
Instead of ruling both, you both will lose." i 

The admission of debate into a scene some- 
times leads to the didactic. 

" Why was not Reason, by decree of Heaven, 
To Man for his internal Monarch given ? 

1 "Henry V," Act 3. 



164 THE ENGLISH HEROIC PLAY 

Our Passions over us the Conquest get, 
And as They please, They cloud or govern it. 
Love, Honour, and Revenge by turns bear sway, 
And all Command what they should all obey." ^ 

Certain passages, too, in which there is much 
historical allusion and patriotic eulogy, may be 
termed purposely instruct! ve.^ On the whole, 
however, this drama is neither preceptive or 
instructive in a didactic manner. Theoretically, 
the authors might claim that, as tragedy paints 
men better than they are, an attempt at in- 
struction by example on their part is implied. 
Practically, it is questionable whether they 
thought much about it. 

The heroic drama is serious ; it deals with 
momentous events in a supposedly dignified and 
lofty manner, in a tone rarely broken. With 
it there is very little admixture of the less 
serious, because that would have been out of 
accord with the "French manner." There is, 
however, an occasional departure,^ probably 
under the influence of the earlier English tradi- 

1 "Altemira," Act 1. Importance is added to this pas- 
sage by its closing an act. 
^ " Henry III," passim. 

8 "Altemira," Act 2. A satire on woman. "Fatal 
Jealousie," passim. A satire on witchcraft. 



GENERAL TRAITS 165 

tion. But in the main, it may be stated with 
tolerable security that wherever there is humor 
it is unconscious. There is sufficient humor to 
attract notice. That these plays were not taken 
as seriously as they were meant to be, the 
" Rehearsal " ^ abundantly shows, and there is 
good reason to believe that the way in which 
they were listened to partly explains Dryden's 
contempt for his audience, for there is no doubt 
that certain of his scenes were received flip- 
pantly, which he regarded as worthy of respect. 
There is many a passage that at the present 
time appears ridiculous, and many a passage 
must have appeared ridiculous to contemporary 
auditors. There is no dearth of unconscious 
humor, though its extent may be difficult to 
determine, as in the following situation where 
a villain mistakes one woman for another and 
mortally poisons her. On learning his error, 
he apologizes. 

1 The "Rehearsal," by George Villiers, Duke of Bucking- 
ham, and others, 1671, is the most deservedly famous satire 
on the absurdities of Restoration tragedy. But there was 
a number of burlesques on particular plays ; and the allu- 
sions to heroic plays, mainly derogatory, in prologues and 
epilogues and scattered profusely throughout comedy, are 
countless. See Appendix C. 



166 THE ENGLISH HEROIC PLAY 

" But your pardon I implore ; 
You're the first Princess I ere killed before. 
Though murd'ring I have my profession made ; 
No Artist but may fail once in his Trade. 
A damn'd dull, foolish — " 

then as he turns to another character, — 

" But Hang't let it die ; 
*Tis a mistake not worth your memory." ^ 

There is no proof, except in certain infre- 
quent and specific cases, that the idea of infus- 
ing an anti-tragedy element into his work ever 
came to a writer of tragedies. Many of these 
writers were ill suited for the task they set 
themselves; they were not born poets, but poet- 
asters, who made tragedies in title and exter- 
nals, but the times demanded plays, and the 
pattern of composition prescribed by fashion 
rendered imitation easy and counterfeit plaus- 
ible. The time was ripe for the " Rehearsal " 
and its species. 

In substance the heroic drama is a violent, 
distorted, and hollow echo of a dead ideal ; in 
its nature it is not only removed from everyday 
life (which would perhaps not matter), but in 
its own peculiar sphere it is not adequately 

1 " Conquest of China," Act 4, Sc. 2. 



GENERAL TRAITS 167 

tangible and does not make for conviction. 
This, in itself, exposes it to derision. The op- 
portunity for parody is doubled when it is 
recalled that these rampantly extravagant no- 
tions were clothed in ill-chosen words and situ- 
ations, due either to a lack of a redeeming 
common sense in the author or to his ignorance 
of his craft as rhymer or playwright. 

It is only necessary to imagine rhymed trag- 
edies acted at the present, and to consider their 
probable reception, in order to realize partially 
the difference in taste between an audience that 
would tolerate this kind of drama and our own, 
and also to realize, though still partially, the 
gulf between these plays and any audience 
whatsoever — how ineffectually they must have 
made their appeal. Picture the spirit of the 
melancholy Dane's father disappearing in this 
wise: 

" Fryar. Stay Spirit stay — 
— What's he who does behind remain? 
Spir. One of the Princes of Lorrain. 
Guise. Say, Spirit, must he wear the Crown? 
Spirit. That unknown Voice has knock't us down. 

[The three Spirits, Rebel and Murder, descend.'* ^ 

i"HenryIII," Act2, Sc.2. 



168 THE ENGLISH HEROIC PLAY 

Not necessarily comical, but certainly devoid 
of the habitual dignity of its author is 

" Now that the Ghosts are vanish'd I'll appear." 

{He makes a noise. '^ 

The actor whose lot it was to declaim this — 
particularly the concluding couplet — is to be 
pitied : 

Enter a Soldier 

" Sold. Upon the Hill 'twixt this and Orleans, 
Right-hand the Road, I 'spy some Horse advance. 

Capt. How many may they be ? 

Sold. Some three or four. 

Capt. Why did you stir unless they had been more ? 

Sold. Methought they more and more began t' appear. 

Capt. Some dreadful Troop of Thistles ! 

Sold. Gad ! I swear, 
I saw 'em move. 

Capt. Some Troop of horn'd Beasts, 
Or Trees with waving Plumes upon their Crests. 
Dost think they were not Clouds. 

Sold. I know not well ; 
I'l try once more and then may surely tell." \_Exit.^ 

There is naught in the context to account for 
the presence of this line : 

" Knock at your breast ; may be you're not at home." ^ 

1 " Herod the Great," Act 1. 

2 "Henry III," Act 2, Sc. 1. 
» Ibid., Act 3, Sc. 1. 



GENERAL TRAITS 169 

If Mr. Stephen's dictum to the effect that the 
element of humor in a play proves the existence 
of this sense in the playwright be applied 
inversely, the result in Dryden's case is dis- 
putable. His two chief editors differ on the 
subject. It is not surprising, therefore, that 
as his talent for comedy has been valued low, 
he should now and again be unintentionally 
humorous in a sort of writing where it was 
difficult to avoid it entirely. In him, as in 
other heroic dramatists, the ridiculous may be 
discerned chiefly in the ultra-extravagant, in 
diction, situation, and sentiment. Sometimes, 
moreover, incongruity between the language 
and the character argues an indifference to 
comic possibilities. Thus a wife who has had 
intrigues with a Dutchman and an Englishman, 
parts from her husband, as he is about to be 
led to death. She observes : 

" Farewell, my dearest ! I may have many husbands, 
But never one like thee." ^ 

The Restoration tragedy did not reflect con- 
temporary life, materially or historically. There 
is apparently scarcely a single allusion to a 

1 " Amhoyna," Act 5, Sc. 1. 



170 THE ENGLISH HEROIC PLAY 

passing event. ^ With a few political refer- 
ences, a few eulogies of the king, scoffings at 
Puritanism, and an occasional gibe at the ex- 
pense of the court (which is not necessarily a 
spontaneous contemporary feature), the list is 
nearly exhausted, so far as material is afforded 
by the plays themselves. There was no at- 
tempt to invade the province of the comedy 
of the day, and depict manners. Incidentally 
Kavenscroft's opinion, 

" I think the business of our Nation 
Too sad a Theam to pass for Recreation," * 

confirmed the practice. That tragedy did not 
depict the life of the time is not in itself cen- 
surable; but disregard of all facts, without 
offering adequate substitutes, takes away the 
sense of standing on firm ground, and is not at 
all compensated for by the feeling of having 
left the earth, without at the same time having 
been transported to a fairy world. 

It is not a fairy world ; but the characters in 

1 It is, of course, impossible now to determine precisely 
the extent of such allusions. They were made the most of 
by the audience. Pepys says that the " Great Favourite " 
was intended to upbraid the king for his mistresses. 

2 '' Conspiracy. ' ' Epilogue. 



GENERAL TRAITS 171 

large part are historical figures, and so should 
be accountable to human reason. Their gen- 
eral manner of expression is such as might be 
supposed to emanate from a "bad poet," and 
the situation which does not satisfy, the char- 
acter which does not convince, the sentiment 
which does not please — all, beyond question, 
came from the same source. In short, the 
v/hole is artificial. 

And it must be acknowledged that, as a 
whole, the heroic drama is monotonous. Mo- 
notony is one of the many consequences of 
lack of originality, none more conspicuous. 
The endeavor on the part of several men, 
similarly educated, to attain the same end in 
the same manner, makes repetition to a monoto- 
nous extent inevitable. The oft-told tale, told 
in the selfsame way, becomes a drone. Love 
is frequently defined with striking similarity, 
manifestations of friendship are duplicated, 
the same characters and situations are repro- 
duced again and again. Because of this mo- 
notony, the appetite becomes dulled, and the 
clearness of the traits fades. For this reason, 
too, bombast eventually fails to attract atten- 
tion. Some plays are without this element, 



172 THE ENGLISH HEROIC PLAY 

but iu the most of them it is a prominent and, 
at first, a striking feature. But the frequency 
of its recurrence takes away its force. 

" Let 'em redouble speed and courage too, 
Here like Alcides on the Phrygian sand, 
Rage in his eyes and thunder in his hand, 
I will attend what Fate so ill design'd, 
And death with Fame and matchless Honour find. 
My Courage shall surpass dull Natures bounds, 
ri fright the insulting Cowards with my wounds. 
And when at last my life's a Prey to Fate, 
Upon their mangled heaps I'l die in State." ^ 

Herod must have had a marvellous gaze. 

" Were your House reviv'd, did they all reign, 
My Looks would fright them into Ghosts again." ^ 

The sun and the " king " of China share the 
universe between them : 

" The Mighty will from whence all pow'r does grow, 
. . . plac'd the Sun above, and me below." * 

Such boasts attract notice at first, but they 
are mild in comparison with numberless others. 
Artificiality, monotony, and bombast are flaws 
in art ; but bombast gets to be thought of as a 

1 " Siege of Memphis," Act 1, Sc. 2. 

2 " Herod the Great," Act 2. 

8 " Conquest of China," Act 2. 



GENERAL TRAITS 173 

spiritual matter, because it is the customary 
medium for the expression of sacrilege. A 
pretty sure means of determining the type of 
the heroic character is by finding out whether 
or not the individual claims for himself equality 
with, or even superiority over, the gods. If the 
result is negative, he lacks a generally impor- 
tant, if not an essential, feature. As the dis- 
respect is to the gods rather than to the 
Christian God, the shock to the modern is 
not so great ; besides the absurd extravagance 
of the conception makes serious consideration 
of it nearly impossible. Yet, if seriousness be 
maintained, blasphemy is frequent as well as 
flagrant. 

" I'm in Fate's place, and dictate her decrees." ^ 

" AVhilst I have pow'r, declare the gods, for me they must, 
Or I will fling their Temples in the Dast, 
O're throw their altars, all their Flammins flay, 
And take from them, their Deities away. 
Tell me no more of Gods, my pow'er shall be 
My greatest, and my only Deitie." ^ 

1 " Aureng-Zebe," Act 4, Sc. 1. For further selections 
from Dryden on this theme, see Holzhausen, E. S., xv. 40 ff. 
Observe Dryden often violates his own dictate, 

"Yet noisy bombast carefully avoid." 

2 " Siege of Babylon," Act 3. 



174 THE ENGLISH HEROIC PLAY 

" But what is death, or whither do I go ? 
To heaven, or some dark Region plac't below, 
If any State or government serene. 
Be where I am should hell encrease its spleen. 
And strive to oppose, yet I would be their Queen." ^ 

The Empress of Morocco lias no fear of death 
and would seek to avoid future punishment 
through an ingenious stratagem. 

" Hell ! Xo, of that I scorn to be afraid ; 
I'll send such throngs to the Infernal Shade, 
Betray, and Kill, and Damn to that Degree, 
m crowd up Hell, till there's no Room for Me." ^ 

Restoration drama, as a whole, was accused of 
being atheistic. Crowne thus pleads guilty : 

" I have, in my Je7'usalems^ made too beauti- 
ful an image of an atheist ; and atheism appears 
too reasonable and lovely. I am sorry there 
should be anything under my hand in defence 
of such a false, pernicious and detestable opin- 
ion. Some endeavour to clear me of the 
guilt, and would persuade the world they were 
written by a noble and excellent wit, the late 

E. of R . But they were printed long 

before my Lord died his Lordship in his poem 
call'd the Sessions of Poets charges me not with 
theft, but my scenes with dulness and want of 
wit, and poetry, which he wou'd not have done 

1 " Siege of Memphis," Act 5, Sc. 5. 

2 " Empress of Morocco," Act 3, Sc. 1. 



GENERAL TRAITS 175 

if they had been his own. But since there is 
too much atheism in those plays I am content 
they shou'd be thought not mine or not good. 
I had rather have no ^yit, no being, than em- 
ploy any part of it against him that gave it."^ 

The charge of atheism, however, against the 
heroic drama, need not be taken into consid- 
eration. It is enough that the temptation to 
out- Herod Herod in bombastic rant is yielded 
to, is pursued to the utmost extreme, cannot 
reach beyond Deity, and so stops there. Besides, 
Jeremy Collier attacked the stage of this era — 
he was well equipped and plain-speaking — 
attacked it in all its phases of profanity, blas- 
phemy, and atheism. He was so scrupulous as 
to object to " Gad " as an oath. Yet nowhere 
(though from his own point of view he might 
have done so justly) did he cite for condemna- 
tion or even mention an heroic play ,2 and what 
he saw fit to let alone there is no occasion now 
to disturb. 

The heroic drama is very superficial as re- 
gards intellectual or emotional power. There 

1 " Caligula." To the Reader. 

2 Jeremy Collier, " Short View," etc. He takes exception 
to a sentiment of Dryden in the dedication to "Aureng- 
Zebe." Chapter II, pp. 160-167, 3d .edition. 1698. 



176 THE ENGLISH HEROIC PLAY 

is not overmuch philosophy of life, and still 
less that is not commonplace. The necessity 
of love, of faith, and of courageous singleness 
of purpose in life is recognized. 

" A shaken faith's the storme of tottering soules." ^ 

" Faith is a force from which there's no defence." ^ 

One should not fear. 

" No, there is a necessity in fate, 
Why still the brave bold man is fortunate ; 
He keeps his object ever full in sight. 
And that assurance holds him fierce and right. 
True, 'tis a narrow path that leads to bliss. 
But right before there is no precipice : 
Fear makes men look aside, and then their footing 
miss." ^ 

" The minds of heroes their own measures are, 
They stand exempted from the rules of war. 
One loose, one sally of the hero's soul. 
Does all the military art control ; 
While timorous wit goes round, or fords the shore, 
He shoots the gulf, and is already o'er. 
And when the enthusiastic fit is spent, 
Looks back amazed at what he underwent." * 

" Had life no love, none would for business live ; 
Yet still from love the largest part we give ; 

1 " Great Favourite," Act 4, Sc. 1. 

2 "Tyrannic Love," Act 4, Sc. 1. 

8 " Conquest of Granada," Pt. 1, Act 4, Sc. 2. 
*/6iU,Pt. 2, Act 4, Sc. 2. 



GENERAL TRAITS 177 

And must be forced, in empire's weary toil, 
To live long wretched, to be pleased a while." ^ 

Here there is no enthusiasm over love or life, 
the melancholy note has set in ; and wherever 
the author — whoever he be — rests for a 
moment, doubtless utterly exhausted, from 
habitual rampancy of thought, the reflection is 
generally sad. At least, whether it be mod- 
erately or extravagantly expressed, meditation 
on life and its value is usually pessimistic. 

" Life's a disease ; " ^ 

" Life was my curse, and given me sure in spight ; " ^ 

and likewise life is a cheat ; 

" By this we see that all the World's a cheat. 
Where truths and falsehoods lye so intermixt 
And are so like each other that 'tis hard 
To find the difference.'"* 

There is a more famous passage in the same 

vein. 

" When I consider life, 'tis all a cheat ; 
Yet, fooled with hope, men favour the deceit ; 
Trust on, and think to-morrow will repay : 

1 Ibid., Pt. 1, Act 5, Sc. 2. 

2 "Fatal Jealousie," Act 2. 

8 " Don Carlos," Act 5, Sc. 1. 
* "Fatal Jealousie," Act 2. 



178 THE ENGLISH HEROIC PLAY \ 

To-morrow's falser than the former day ; ] 

Lies worse, and, while it says, we shall be blest ; 

With some new joys, cuts off what we possest. 

Strange cozenage ! None would live past years again, , 

Yet all hope pleasure in what yet remain ; \ 

And, from the dregs of life, think to receive, , 

What the first sprightly running could not give. ;: 

I'm tired with waiting for this chemic gold. 

Which fools us young, and beggars us when old." ^ ' 

The rejoinder is hopeful, but the note is rare ^ 

and perhaps not entirely convincing. j 

" 'Tis not for nothing that we life pursue ; '; 

It pays our hopes with something still that's new : t 

Each day's a mistress, unenjoyed before ; J 

Like travellers, we're pleased with seeing more. i 

Did you but know what joys your way attend, | 

You would not hurry to your journey's end." ^ i 

\ 

An old man speaks thus : I 

"Believe me, son, and needless trouble spare; ] 

'Tis a base w^orld, and is not worth our care : ^ 

The vulgar, a scarce animated clod, 1 

Ne'er pleased with aught above them, prince or God. i 
Were I a god, the drunken globe should roll, 
The little emmets with the human soul 
Care for themselves, while at my ease I sat. 

And second causes did the work of fate ; "; 
Or, if 1 would take care, that care should be 
For wit that scorned the world, and lived like me." ^ 

1 " Aureng-Zebe," Act 4, Sc. 1. . 

2 Ibid. 3 jj^ici. 



GENERAL TRAITS 179 1 

i 

All is vanity. i 

" 'Tis hard to know whose brains have wider flaws, ; 

They who sit rattling chains, and plaiting straws, 1 

Or they who toil only for vain renown, J 

To wear in history a paper crown. ] 

Whilst Csesar now for a design so vain j 

Takes poets and historians in his train, I 

How like a lunatic this Prince appears, i 

Pleas'd because bells jingling at his ears I"* ' 

Old age is uninviting. 

" The greatest object pity hath, is Age i 

When it returns to childishness again | 

^ T^P ^ V^ V^ V^ yp j 

And though we see this true, yet we would all ' 

Prolong our time to that decrepid state." ^ 

Since the world is a fraud, let us adapt our- 
selves to its ways, and believe not in immortal 
love. \ 

" Think you then Madam, that no sympathy 
Of noble souls lasts to eternity ? 

No, there are no such souls as you would have, | 

What ever you have read or heard that's brave. \ 

Our Conquerour, whose force equals his will, 1 

A Hero is, 'cause he can rob and kill. j 

And well bred Cheats, do call it complement, '\ 

When flattering they speak what is not meant ; j 

1 "Caligula," Acts. 

2 "Fatal Jealousie," Act 5. 



180 THE ENGLISH HEROIC PLAY 

Cheating out-witting is, though some tame fools 
Believe the virtue taught us in our Schools." ^ 

Of course marriage but increases misery. 

" There's not that happiness 
In Marriage Beds, as single People guess, 
No, no, so far from that, that thousands be 
Flatter'd by hopes to endless misery. 
And where there's two obtain their heart's desire, 
Ten thousand miss it, and in grief expire. 
Were these Positions true, there's no man, sure, 
If Widdowed once, could other Wives endure. 
And yet we see the first depriv'd of Life, 
There's few that seek not for a second Wife. 

'Tis true, though strange, but yet our minds are such. 

As always find too little, or too much, 

Desire's a Monster, whose extended Maw 

Is never fill'd tho' it doth all things draw ; 

For we with envious Eyes do others see, 

Who want our ills, and think they happy be, 

Till we possessing what we wish'd before. 

Find our ills doubl'd, and so wish for more." ^ 

The attitude toward life is, then, pessimistic, 
its value is dubious; and the attitude toward 
things unseen is sceptical. This approaches the 
paradoxical, for there is a great deal of the vis- 
ible appearance of the supernatural on the stage 

1 "Amazon Queen," Act 1, Sc. 1. 

2 "Fatal Jealousie," Act 1. 



GENERAL TRAITS 181 

— ghosts, spirits, goblins, and the like — and in 
many cases there is no evidence to show that 
the scene was not meant to be serious, nor that 
it was interpreted otherwise. It would prob- 
ably be difficult, in other words, to prove that 
such scenes were intended to be ridiculous ; the 
manner is too dignified to warrant such an 
assumption. Furthermore, there are minutely 
detailed descriptions of charms, of means of 
appeal to the unearthly. Yet, the intellectual 
aspect, as expressed in verbal reflection on what 
is beyond nature, is sceptical. 

" The Dead ne'er to the Living durst appear, 
Ghosts are but shadows painted by our fear." ^ 

Richard III speaks : 

" Hah ! Ghosts ? there are no ghosts, nor ever were, 
But in the Tales of Priests, or Womens Fear. 
If you be Ghosts, to your dark Mansions go ; 
If you be Ghosts, 'twas I that made you so. 
I of your Substance these pale Nothings made ; ^ 
How dare you then your Conquerour invade ? 
Go home, dark Vagabonds ! must I not have 
Rest in my Bed, nor you Rest in your grave ? 
What Magick can Night-Vapours thus condense 
To Forms, which cheat, and terrifie the Sense ? " 

1 " Herod the Great," Act 2. 

2 The punctuation is indistinct. 



182 THE ENGLISH HEROIC PLAY 

After thus addressing the apparition before 
him as if it did not exist, his mental state 
changes, and the address is continued, taking 
for granted the actuality of the vision. 

" Saint Henry ! get thee hence to thy cold Bed, 
So tame, alive ? so fierce, now thou art Dead ? 
A holy King did not the Throne become, 
Thy Godliness prepar'd thee for a Tomb. 
I did from Teiokshery dispatch thy Heir, 
In the next World to be thy Harbinger ; 
Would you have staid behind, when he was gone ? 
A Father ought not to outlive his Son. 
Hah! Brother? Wife? standoff! no tyes of Blood 
Are by aspiring monarchs understood ; 
They to secure my Crown did Life resign ; 
She in a Cup, he in a Butt of Wine." 

The scene and the act close in this way : 

" Peace, Conscience ! I long since have conquer'd thee ; 
Yet still thou art dispos'd to Mutinie 
Oft have I par'd thy Branches ; but thy Root 
Does lye so deep, I cannot tear it out. 
Of Sovereign Power it is the only Curse, 
To be Successful, and then feel Remorse." ^ 

The sceptical view is not confined to verbal 
expression; there are scenes also in which 
the supernatural is scoffed at. In the follow- 
ing, Statira mistakes a woman for a goddess, 

1 " English Princess," Act 4, Sc. 9. 



GENERAL TRAITS 183 

i 

and confides the vision to her lover, Alexander, j 

who takes advantage of her credulity. 

" Enter the Amazon Queen alone from Hunting, dis- ■ 

guised with a Head-piece, who is mistaken for Diana. | 

Statira vail'd, prays to the supposed Diana." ^ i 

" Stat. Diana lately did to me appear. 

And bid me love the man I held most dear, ' 
And that I should not much prolong his pain ; 

But left the rest till we two met again. \ 

So that I cannot be for marriage free, : 

Till the bright goddess next appears to me. I 

A lex. You are sure wrought on by confederates, i 

For we have but few parleys with the Fates ; '. 

But when the deities do ought reveal, , 
T'is to their Priests, what they from us conceal; 
And you the goddess will behold no more. 

Which fills me with despair more than before. \ 

Stat. Sir, there were none who knew of my design i 
To pray to her when she on me did shine ; 

There was my woman, who me waits upon, \ 

Who saw and knew 'twas no delusion. i 

Alex. But in what dress, did she to you appear? j 

Stat. A Head-piece on, and in her hand a Spear. j 
As fame does tell us, Dian oft was wont 

So to be clad when she went forth to hunt. ; 

Alex. 'Tis a good hint, an Oracle to fain [Aside. \ 
From Ephesus, sought and return'd again." ^ 

1 "Amazon Queen," Act 2, Sc. 3. j 

2 Ibid.y Act 4, Sc. 2. ^ 



184 THE ENGLISH HEROIC PLAY 

Alexander therefore has a make-believe oracle 
presented to her, which she thinks genuine, and 
which she joyfully obeys : 

" 'Twas honour and not I bred my delay, 
Goddess thou know'st how gladly I obey." ^ 

There is still another play which is in effect 
a satire on witchcraft, or, more correctly, in- 
cludes the story of a witch. Its authorship is 
doubtful, but the date, 1673, indicates that 
the play was written when witchcraft was a 
much discussed question, and the mere im- 
portance of the subject corroborates this in- 
dication. This suggests that it was in a 
manner more closely linked to its age than 
others of its kind. There were some famous 
accusations then for witchcraft, particularly 
one in France only the year previous. ^ Glan- 
vil's book came out in 1681, and 1682 has been 
assigned as the last date when witches were 
hanged in England.^ Considering the time, 
therefore, the modernity of the rationalism of 
the following speech is noticeable. In the same 

1 "Amazon Queen," Act 5, Sc. 2. 

2 Francis Hutchinson, "Historical Essay concerning 
Witchcraft," 1720, p. 55. ^Ibid., p. 57. 



GENERAL TRAITS 186 

play there is a scene in which the methods of 
witchcraft are exposed and ridiculed. In con- 
nection with opinions on the supernatural such 
as these, as well as on pessimism and scepticism 
in general, it should always be borne in mind 
that the audience as well as the playwright 
was of the court, which was a very different 
matter from being of the people. So, however 
prevalent in court circles, among comparatively 
educated men, such ideas may have been, they 
could not have been widely spread. The 
attempt to seek in this body of plays popular 
as opposed to courtly, expression of life and 
ideals, is discouraging. 

" I've no such art 
As People think, to call up Spirits to me ; 
Nor know I anything but what is told me. 

7^ 7^ ^ y^ ^ ¥^ tI^ 

These things you speak of, people think I do, 

And so I'de have 'em, for 'tis the only way I have to live ; 

The Vulgar People love to be deluded ; 

And things the most unlikely they most dote on ; 

A strange Disease in Cattle, Hogs or Pigs, 

Or any accident in Cheese or Butter ; 

Though't be but natural, or a Slut's fault, 

Must straight be witchcraft ! Oh, the Witch was here 1 

The Ears or Tail is burn'd, the Churn is burn'd ; 

And this to hurt the Witch, when all the while 



186 THE ENGLISH HEROIC PLAY 

They 're likest Witches that believe such Cures ; 

though I can raise no Devils, 
Yet I confederate with Rogues and Taylors, 
Things that can shape themselves like Elves, 

And Goblins 

And often do like Spirits haunt great Houses, 
Most times to steal, but many times for mirth." ^ 

Passages on death and immortality, as a final 
phase of doubt, are not as a rule noteworthy. 
It is the uncertainty of the nature of the un- 
discovered country that makes death fearful. 
It is difficult to banish. Hamlet's soliloquy from 
the mind, and some passages indicate that Res- 
toration dramatists did not do so. 

" Could we live always, life were worth our cost ; 
But now we keep with care what must be lost. 
Here we stand shivering on the bank, and cry, 
When we should plunge into eternity. 

One moment ends our pain ; 

And yet the shock of death we dare not stand, 

By thought scarce measured, and too swift for sand ; 

'Tis but because the living death ne'er knew. 

They fear to prove it as a thing that's new." ^ 

" Distrust and darkness of a future state. 
Make poor mankind so fearful of their fate. 

1 " Fatal Jealousie," Act 2. 

3 " Tyrannic Love," Act 6, Sc. 1. 



GENERAL TRAITS 187 I 

\ 

Death, in itself, is nothing ; but we fear 1 

To be we know not what, we know not where." * ! 



" What is the thing, call'd Death, we mortals shun ? 
Is't some real, or is't a fancy only ? 
Like that imaginary point in Mathematics ; 
Not to be found only in definition. 
It is no more ; Death, like your Children's Bug- 
bears 
Is fear'd by all, yet has no other Being 
Than what weak fancy gives it ; 'tis a line, 
But yet imaginary, drawn betwixt 
Time and that dreadful thing Eternity ; 
I, that's the thing, 'tis fear'd ; for now I find it 
Eternity which puzzles all the World, 
To name the Inhabitants that People it ; 
Eternity, whose undiscovered Countrey 
We Fools divide, before we come to see it ; 
Making one part contain all happiness, 
The other misery, then unseen fight for 't. 
Losing our certains for uncertainties ; 
All Sects pretending to a Right of choyce ; 
Yet none go willingly to take their part. 
For they all doubt what they pretend to know. 
And fear to mount, lest they should fall below." ^ 

Although the heroic play is mainly non- 
reflective, dealing with externals, there is now 
and then a deeper note than usual, such as this 
on truth : 

1 "Aureng-Zebe," Act 4, So. 1. 

2 " Fatal Jealousie," Act 3. 



188 THE ENGLISH HEROIC PLAY 

" So in Terrestrial things there is not one 
But takes its Form and Nature from our fancy ; 
Not its own being, and is what we do think it." 

Truth is not as it seems to men. 

" No, not at all, as truth appears to us ; 
For oftentimes 

That is a truth to me that's false to you, 
So 'twould not be if it was truly true." ^ 

Far rarer is the note that the real life is 
within. 

" I'm Pris'ner still, to my own thoughts enslav'd, 
There's no confinement like that of the mind ; 
All other Bondage may releasements find." ^ 

The heroic play is a strange mixture of a 
rigid adhesion to law and of utter disregard for 
it. In the main, law is observed in the various 
manifestations of external form, such as in ver- 
sification and in plot. The purest examples of 
the heroic play are written entirely in couplets. 
Lowell pointed out that the heroic couplet is 
splendidly adapted for compositions of a mock- 
heroic nature, and that Pope's " Rape of the 
Lock " owes its perfection in part to his choice 
of this kind of verse. It is clear that a form 

1 " Fatal Jealousie," Act 2. 
2 " Henry m," Act 2, Sc. L 



GENERAL TRAITS 189 

which lends itself so readily to mock-heroic 
purposes must be used, when applied to the 
heroic, with great discretion. But it was used 
in the reign of Charles II so indiscriminately 
as to obliterate in the minds of its devotees any 
sense of its appropriateness to the subject-matter. 
Perhaps it was this indiscriminate and excessive 
use of it that has strengtheued the general 
opinion that the form itself is most ill suited for 
English dramatic expression. The words of 
M. Beljame, because of his nationality and of 
his intimate acquaintance with English litera- 
ture of the seventeenth century, should carry 
great weight in this connection. He says : — 

"They adopted rhyme. If this form seems 
necessary for the rhytlnn of our French verse, it 
imparts to the English a lyrical tone which is 
unbearable [^un chant lyrique insupportable] in 
a work of great length, and it is so manifestly 
contrary to the dramatic genius of our neigh- 
bors that it was dethroned by Marlowe in the 
sixteenth century, and the Restoration poets 
could only give it an artificial life for a few 
years, after which it disappeared forever from 
the stage." 1 

1 Alexandre Beljame, "Le Public et les Hommes de 
Lettres en Angleterre au dix-huiti^me Si^cle." Deuxi^me 
edition, 1897, p. 41. 



190 THE ENGLISH HEROIC PLAY 

Many of the dramatists themselves despised 
the vehicle of expression which they used ; 
Shadwell, from the first, Dryden, eventually, 
and the others silently. There may have been 
a few, like Rymer, who thought well of it ; but 
it is worthy of note, in considering the men of 
more than average ability who wrote heroic 
plays and also plays which in form were not 
heroic, that it was in the latter kind that their 
efforts attained the greatest excellence. This 
is true of Otway, Crowne, Lee, and Dryden. 

The plot, like the versification, was made by 
rule. The strict observance, on the whole, of 
the three unities, is in itself sufficient evidence 
of the wide application of the fixed standard. 
The method was not of the kind that creative 
genius imposes upon itself, but it was concerned 
with technique in the narrow sense, and disre- 
garded the relation between internal and exter- 
nal form. In the characterization, the combi- 
nation of features which adhere to a prescribed 
code and of others which disregard it, is notice- 
able. In so far as the dramatis personce are 
affected by the exigencies of the regularity of 
the plot, they show they are made on a set 
plan; but as the mouth -pieces of certain senti- 



GENERAL TRAITS 191 

ments which defy law and order, they reflect 
license. 

It is in the sentiment of the heroic play that 
this license is most conspicuous. Here there is 
a most curious mixture of shadows of old ideals, 
and of old ideals perverted. There are some 
phases of heroic sentiment that undeniably, 
though faintly, echo and form a part of a lit- 
erary tradition that the Troubadours began. 
There are other phases which are the result of 
the distortion of chivalric ideals. The note of 
patriotism is the most unquestionable and 
prominent native element in heroic sentiment. 
Not to be compared, perhaps, with the same 
note in Elizabethan drama, or even in the lyric 
contemporary with itself, this element is still 
respectable and genuine. It should be remem- 
bered, however, as a qualification, that patriotism 
never embraced the humble, never considered 
them individually but collectively, and then, 
even more than in Shakespeare's case, to abuse 
them. In the drawing of examples of friend- 
ship, the heroic drama keeps closest to the 
literary ideals of all ages ; to the traditions of 
both classic and romantic poetry, and the great 
spirits from Homer to the author of Roland, to 



192 THE ENGLISH HEJIOIC PLAY 

Tasso, Ariosto, and the more modern poets. 
They have all exalted friendship ; so it is in the 
heroic play. Virtue is often sneered at, reason 
and honor are brushed contemptuously aside ; 
friendship alone has its place upon a high plane, 
second only in elevation to that upon which 
love is enthroned. 

The contempt for honor was a conscious 
breaking away from the contemporary French 
standard and most clearly illustrates the inver- 
sion and subversion of a literary tradition. 
Heroic love is not a high and ennobling pas- 
sion, but one which has this great and distinc- 
tive peculiarity that it sanctions a violation of 
all moral laws wherever they are opposed to its 
free sweep and range, although, when not con- 
flicting with love, they are recognized as laws 
to which man owes allegiance, and ideals of 
conduct toward which he should work. The 
doctrine that love justifies wrong-doing is in- 
compatible with poetic justice, which, conse- 
quently, is not always regarded. Yet love in 
this drama is still dignified and serious, with 
the physical element cast in the background, 
and constancy extolled. 

The native element in the heroic play is 



GENERAL TRAITS 193 

slight, for the love which is the most important 
feature of heroic sentiment and the three unities 
which determined the external form are foreign 
to England. The only claim to originality that 
plays with these predominating characteristics 
can have is based on the general truth that 
the importation of anything, from a country in 
which it is in accord with the national tempera- 
ment, to another land the native genius of which 
is incapable of assimilating it, always results 
in something different from the original. In 
verse-form, plot, character, and sentiment, the 
heroic play was exotic. It was frankly intro- 
duced as a foreign thing to please a Frenchified 
court. Its failure was due first to its being 
antagonistic to the British dramatic genius and 
secondly to the fact that no other type of Eng- 
lish drama appealed to an audience which was 
so restricted in taste and so small in numbers. 

Artificial, monotonous, and bombastic as an art 
production ; spiritually superficial, pessimistic, 
sceptical in its reflections on life, blasphemous 
and not overmuch observing of poetic justice, 
the heroic drama has for its sphere the external 
life of pomp and pageantry, essentially unideal. 
Yet, with all its faults, it was a wholesome anti- 



194 THE ENGLISH HEROIC PLAY 

dote to the shameless affronts to taste and 
morals for which contemporary comedy is no- 
torious. It insisted upon decency and decorum 
of language, it encouraged many of the virtues, 
such as generosity and bravery, and consistently 
kept aloof from the sordid cares of everyday 
life. To a public tainted with meanness and 
sensuality it presented a shadow, at least, of 
true heroic character. 



APPENDIX A 

RELATION BETWEEN THE HEROIC PLAY 
AND THE OPERA 

Though the " Siege of Rhodes " is usually termed the 
first English opera, particularly by writers of literary 
histories, the resemblance of opera form to the masque is 
plain, and has been pointed out. " The idea of English 
Opera was suggested neither by the Ballet nor the 
Tragedy. It was the legitimate offspring of the Masque; 
and the Masque, in England at least, was very far from 
presenting the characteristics of a true Lyric Drama. Its 
music was, at first, purely incidental — as much so as that 
introduced into the plays of Shakespeare. . . . The music 
written by Henry Lawes for Milton's ' Comus ' in 1634 
is far less dramatic than Lock's ' Macbeth ' ; and it was 
really Purcell who first transformed the Masque into the 
opera ; or rather, annihilated the one, and introduced the 
other in its place." — Grove, "Diet, of Music," ii; 500. 

The search for an earlier example of the opera than 
the " Siege of Rhodes " rewards the curious only by re- 
garding the letter rather than the spirit. "In 1617 
Nicolo Laniere set an entire Masque of Ben Jonson's 
to music, in the Stilo recitativo, and may therefore justly 
claim the credit of having composed the first English 
Opera, though he was by birth an Italian. But the 
practice was not continued." — Grove, ii; 507. 

195 



196 THE ENGLISH HEROIC PLAY 

The transition from masque to opera was not com- 
plete even in Purcell's day. Drydeu styled " Albion and 
Albanius," produced 1685, published 1691, an opera, and 
yet, as Professor Saintsbury says, " it is not easy to see 
why Dryden should not have kept the ancient name of 
Masque for the piece, — a name which thoroughly fits it." 
Sir Walter Scott thus comments : " Our author appears 
to have found it difficult to assign a name for this per- 
formance, which was at once to address itself to the 
eye, the ear, and the understanding. The ballad-opera, 
since invented, in which part is sung, part acted and 
spoken, comes nearest to its description." Dryden also 
called the " State of Innocence " an opera, but the appro- 
priateness of the title has been denied on the ground 
that it " contains no lyrical poetry, the music employed 
in it being entirely instrumental." — Hogarth, i ; 83. 
In another instance Dryden seems to be at a loss for a 
name. '^ It cannot properly be called a play, because the 
action of it is supposed to be conducted sometimes by 
supernatural means, or magick ; nor an opera, because 
the story of it is not sung." (Preface to " Albion and 
Albanius.") Nevertheless Dryden has his own notions 
on the species which in the same preface he defended 
against imaginary opponents : 

" An opera is a poetical tale, or fiction, represented 
by vocal and instrumental music, adorned with scenes, 
machines, and dancing. The supposed persons of this 
musical drama are generally supernatural, as gods and 
goddesses and heroes, which at least are descended from 
them, and are in due time to be adopted into their 
number. The subject, therefore, being extended beyond 
the limits of human nature, admits of that sort of 
marvellous and surprising conduct, which is rejected 



APPENDIX A 197 

in other plays. Human impossibilities are to be received 
as they are in faith; because, where gods are intro- 
duced, a supreme power is to be understood, and second 
causes are out of doors. Yet propriety is to be ob- 
served even here. The gods are all to manage their 
own peculiar provinces ; and what was attributed by the 
heathens to one power ought not to be performed by any 
other. Phoebus must foretell, Mercury must charm with 
his caduceus, and Juno must reconcile the quarrels of the 
marriage-bed. To conclude, they must all act according 
to their distinct and peculiar characters. If the persons 
represented were to speak upon the stage it would follow 
of necessity that the expressions should be lofty, figura- 
tive, aiid majestical; but the nature of an opera denies 
the frequent use of these poetical ornaments ; for vocal 
music, though it often admits a loftiness of sound, yet 
always exacts an harmonious sweetness ; or, to distinguish 
yet more justly, the recitative part of the opera requires 
a more masculine beauty of expression and sound ; the 
other, which, for want of a proper English word, I must 
call the songish part, must abound in the softness and 
variety of numbers; its principal intention being to 
please hearing rather than to gratify the understanding 
... I said . . . that the persons represented in operas 
are generally gods, goddesses, and heroes descended from 
them, who are supposed to be their peculiar care ; which 
hinders not, but that meaner persons may sometimes be 
gracefully introduced, especially if they have relation to 
those first times, which poets call the Golden Age ; wherein, 
by reason of their innocence, those happy mortals were 
supposed to have had a more familiar intercourse with 
superior beings ; and, therefore, shepherds might reason- 
ably be admitted as of all callings the most innocent, the 



198 THE ENGLISH HEEOIC PLAY 

most happy, and who, by reason of the spare time they 
had, in their almost idle employment, had most leisure 
to make verses, and to be in love ; without somewhat of 
which passion, no opera can possibly subsist." 

From the foregoing extract it will be observed that 
Dryden's conception of opera and of the heroic drama 
(stated in his " Essay on Heroic Plays ") is the same in 
the following respects : the characters, if human, are to 
be heroic (in the original sense — approaching demi- 
gods) ; the improbable is justifiable ; and as love (with 
valor) is the subject of the one, without it no opera can 
possibly subsist. The points of divergence, on the other 
hand, are in the diction; in the fact that most of the 
characters in the former are either supernatural or of 
low birth, whereas in the heroic play they come from 
neither of these " social spheres " ; and in the opera's 
" principal intention being to please hearing rather than 
to gratify understanding." 

It is this last consideration — that the opera did not 
appeal to the understanding — that is at the root of 
Dryden's contempt for the office of librettist. He chafes 
under the yoke and swears he will never be a slave to the 
composition again: 

" The same reasons which depress thought in an opera, 
have a stronger effect upon the words, especially in our 
language; for there is no maintaining the purity of 
English in short measures, where the rhyme returns so 
quick, and it is so often female, or double rhyme, which 
is not natural to our tongue, because it consists too 
much of monosyllables, and those too most commonly 
clogged with consonants; for which reason I am often 
forced to coin new words, revive some that are anti- 
quated, and botch others, as if I had not served out my 



APPENDIX A 199 

time in poetry, but was bound apprentice to some dog- 
gerel rhymer, who makes songs to tunes, and sings them 
for a livelihood. It is true I have not been often put to 
this drudgery; but where I have, the words will suffi- 
ciently shew that I was then a slave to the composition, 
which I will never be again ; it is my part to invent, and 
the musicians to humour that invention. I may be 
counselled, and will always follow my friend's advice 
where I find it reasonable, but will never part with the 
power of the militia." — Preface to "Albion and Alba- 
nius." 

But he spoke too soon, and did not keep his resolution. 
And while there appears good enough evidence of the 
friendship between Dryden and Purcell at the time the 
following extract from the Dedication to " King Arthur," 
1691, was written, his disrespect for the matter in hand 
is none the less evident because instead of being openly 
expressed, as previously in the preface to " Albion and 
Albanius," it is now subtly and deftly insinuated with 
that affected satisfaction with his age which he so 
frequently assumed and could so easily throw off. 

" I humbly offer you this trifle, which, if it succeed 
upon the stage, is like to be the chiefest entertainment 
of our ladies and gentlemen this summer. When I wrote 
it, seven years ago, I employed some reading about it, to 
inform myself out of Beda, Bochartus, and other authors, 
concerning the rites and customs of the heathen Saxons ; 
as I also used the little skill I have in poetry to adorn it. 
But not to offend the present times, nor a government 
which has hitherto protected me, I have been obliged so 
much to alter the first design, and take away so many 
beauties from the writing, that it is now no more what it 
was formerly, than the present ship of the Royal Sover- 



200 THE ENGLISH HEROIC PLAY 

eign, after so often taking down and altering, is the 
vessel it was at the first building. There is nothing 
better than what I intended, but the musick, which has 
since arrived to a greater perfection in England than 
ever formerly; especially passing through the artful hands 
of Mr. Purcell, who has composed it with so great a 
genius, that he has nothing to fear but an ignorant, ill- 
judging audience. 

"But the numbers of poetry and vocal musick are 
sometimes so contrary, that in many places I have been 
obliged to cramp my verses, and make them rugged to 
the reader, that they may be harmonious to the hearer ; 
of w^hich I have no reason to repent me, because these 
sorts of entertainments are principally designed for the 
ear and eye ; and therefore, in reason, my art on this 
occasion ought to be subservient to his. And besides, I 
flatter myself with an imagination, that a judicious audi- 
ence will easily distinguish betwixt the songs wherein I 
have complied with him, and those in which I have fol- 
lowed the rules of poetry in the sound and cadence of 
the words." 

A successful, though highly unesteemed contemporary 
also speaks contemptuously and without reserve of the 
office of librettist : 

" In a thing written in five weeks, . . . there must needs 
be many ERROURS, which ... I have not had leisure to 
mend, . . . nor would it indeed be worth the Pains, since 
there are as many Objects in the Play, and such variety 
of Diversion, as will not give the Audience leave to mind 
the Writing; and I doubt not but the Candid Reader 
will forgive the faults when he considers that the great 
Design was to entertain the Tow^n with variety of Musick, 
curious Dancing, splendid Scenes and Machines ; and that 



APPENDIX A 201 

I do not, nor ever did intend to value myself upon the 
writing of this Play. For I had rather be Author of one 
Scene of Comedy, like some of Ben Johnson's, than of 
all the best plays of this kind that have been, or ever 
shall be written; Good Comedy requiring much more 
Wit and Judgment in the Writer, than any rhyming, 
unnatural Plays can do. This I have so little valued 
that I have not alter'd six lines in it since it was first 
written, which (except the songs at the Marriage of 
Psyche in the last Scene) was all done sixteen months 
since. In all the Words which are sung, I did not 
so much take care of the Wit or Fancy of 'em, as 
the making of 'em proper for musick ; in which I 
cannot but have some little knowledge, having been 
bred for many years of my Youth to some Performance 
in it. 

"I chalked out the way to the Composer (in all but 
the Song of Furies and Devils in the Fifth Act), having 
designed which Line I would have sung by One, which 
by Two, which by Three, which by four Voices, &c., and 
what manner of humour I would have in all the Vocal 
Musick." — Shadwell's "Psyche," Preface. 

The presence of operatic features meant chiefly a greater 
attention than in the drama proper to the spectacular. 
There appears little doubt that it was the opinion of 
certain playwrights and critics that in proportion to the 
importance of the operatic element the significance and 
dignity of the dramatist's function decreased. Dryden 
and Shadwell have been cited ; and among contemporary 
theatre-goers Langbaine gives a curt account of the 
popular success of " Psyche " — a work most vehemently 
damned by the critics. "How much this Opera takes, 
every Body that is acquainted with the Theatre knows ; 



202 THE ENGLISH HEROIC PLAY 

and with reason, since the greatest Masters in Vocal 
Musick, Dancing, and Painting, were concern'd in it." 
There is also Wright's testimony. — " Historia Histronica," 
1699: 

"It is an argument of the worth of the plays and 
actors of the last age, and easily inferred, that they 
were much beyond ours in this, to consider that they 
could support themselves merely from their own merit, 
the weight of the matter, and goodness of the action, 
without scenes and machines ; whereas the present plays 
with all that shew can hardly draw an audience, unless 
there be the additional invitation of a Signior Fideli, a 
Monsieur I'Abbe, or some such foreign regale expressed 
in the bottom of the bill." 

These facts naturally lead to a questioning of Mr. E. 
Sutherland Edwards's opinion : " It never occurred to 
the dramatists of the Restoration that there was any- 
thing in the opera that could interfere with the well- 
being of the spoken drama " (" Lyrical Drama," ii ; 
123-124); but rather to a crediting of the statement 
(Ward, iii ; 320) which called it forth : " The complaints 
of our dramatists are both loud and deep as to the diffi- 
culty which they experienced in maintaining a struggle 
against " the opera. 

It has been questioned whether contemporaries were 
warranted in their belief that the importation of operatic 
features was detrimental to dramatic art. Professor 
Ward (iii ; 330) agrees with them : " The Opera usurped 
so large a share of fashionable favour that the progress 
of the English drama could not fail to suffer from the 
success of this foreign importation on the boards of 
English theatres." But Mr. Edwards is on the negative 
side: 



APPENDIX A 203 

" It can be shown by historical evidence . . . that opera 
has never injured the drama." — " Lyrical Drama," ii ; 122. 

Any discussion of opera versus drama of this era is prima- 
rily a matter of the extent to which the latter depended 
for its maintenance upon features that did not appeal 
directly to the understanding. Such features were vocal 
and instrumental music, dancing, costume and scenery, 
and their combination is commonly called operatic. The 
connotation of this adjective has always assigned a lead- 
ing place to the spectacular element. The meaning of 
the noun " opera " has somewhat changed. The modern 
use of the word refers primarily and perhaps almost 
solely to the presence of music, because owing to the con- 
tinued and ever growing resort to stage accessories by the 
drama proper, they are no longer considered peculiarly 
characteristic of the opera. But in the seventeenth 
century opera meant mainly " scenes and machines," and 
the musical element, if it was introduced at all, was, 
as a rule, comparatively unimportant. Langbaine's 
few words rather corroborate such an assumption, and 
Genest (i ; 139) expressly says ; " Downes considers 
Machinery so essential to an Opera, that he calls (Shad- 
well's) 'Lancashire Witches' (1681) a kind of Opera, 
because there were machines for the Witches." 

The opera was in its infancy. No one knew exactly 
what it was, because it had not attained sufficient growth, 
and was in such a pliable condition that any definition 
of one day might be obsolete the next. There was no 
opera house in London, nor one even exclusively given 
over to spectacular productions, for although the Dorset 
Gardens was erected for that sort of entertainment, and 
was perhaps chiefly devoted to such use, yet the managers 
of that play-house were by no means averse to putting 



204 THE ENGLISH HEROIC PLAY 

on a tragedy or a comedy in which little stage adornment 
of any kind was reqnired. Likewise, although Sir W. 
Davenant's theatre, from his early association with the 
term, may have been popularly known as the opera, yet 
that does not seem, to have been its official name, nor 
would there have been much appropriateness in such a 
title considering the general character of its productions. 
There was no opera-going, as distinct from a theatre- 
going, public ; there was no rage for the opera such as 
characterized the beginning of the succeeding century, 
for the manifest reason that, of opera pure and simple, 
there was next to none. 

The number of so-called operas — so-called by their 
authors — produced or printed in the confines of our 
period was not large, but small, hardly appreciable in 
comparison with the hundreds of various sorts of dra- 
matic compositions then written. The " Siege of Rhodes," 
called an opera in its first and incomplete form during 
the Commonwealth, was elaborately produced as such in 
1662. Cambert's and Grafue's opera of "Ariadne," a 
translation from the French, w^as produced in 1674. Thus 
twelve years elapsed between the first and second opera ; 
the second was, moreover, a court production. "Albion 
and Albanius" was given in the year of Charles II.'s 
death, and " King Arthur " in 1691. " Cassandra " (1692), 
and "Fairy Queen" (1692), are far less known. Both 
are anonymous. The latter is an adaptation of "Mid- 
summer J^ight's Dream," and is prefixed by a defence of 
the opera. At the very end of the century are Durfey's 
" Cynthia and Endymion " (1697) and " Brutus of Alba " 
(1697), published by Powell and Yerbruggen, and stolen 
from Tate's tragedy of the same name ; Settle's " World 
in the Moon" (1697), and Motteux's adaptation of 



APPENDIX A 205 

Fletcher's " Island Princess " (1699). If the " Biographia 
Dramatica " is to be relied upon when the original itself 
is not at command, these were all called operas. Two 
others, not intended for the stage, are Dryden's " State 
of Innocence" (1676), and a sequel to it, Ecclestton's 
"Noah's Flood" (1679). Alexis's "Paradise" (1680) 
and Betterton's adaptation of Fletcher's " Prophetess " 
(1690) were styled dramatic operas. 

This list comprises, so far as can be ascertained from a 
study of Baker and Holliwell, all the self-styled operas 
given to the world in one form or another from 1656 to 
1702. "Pastor Fido," in the form of Settle's translation 
of 1677, " a pastoral," probably should be placed in this 
class. A Restoration operatic form of the "Tempest" 
was called a comedy, and some so-called tragedies, of which 
Shadwell's "Psyche" (1674) and Charles Davenant's 
" Circe " (1677) were popular successful examples, were 
as thoroughly operatic as the operas in name. 

The smallness of the list would indicate that the au- 
thors — doubtless because of the formlessness of the kind 
— did not like to call their works operas, and that the 
word was not as yet in common use. Still the list 
reveals a comparatively goodly number of Elizabethan 
plays made over, and improved, as was thought, by 
the introduction of scenes and machines. Some of these 
alterations deviated from the original much more than 
others, but in all cases what was added was, in short, the 
operatic element ; and the boasted purpose unquestionably 
was to illustrate the advance in stage mechanism by 
challenging a comparison unfavorable to the preceding 
age. The list shows, furthermore, that the genesis of 
English opera was in tragedy. It had, in its earliest 
form, a serious theme, and it was not until the close of 



206 THE ENGLISH HEROIC PLAY 

the century in 1697, that the "World in the Moon" 
appeared, — an early example, if not, indeed, the first, of 
what was to be comic opera. Gildon, who took up Lang- 
baine's work, remarked the change. " This is something 
unusual," said he, "being a comical Opera." 

It is plain that as the study of the heroic play necessi- 
tates a determination of the heroic element in various 
dramatic forms, to an even greater extent a study of 
seventeenth-century English opera cannot deal primarily 
with so-called opera, but must be rather an account of the 
infusion and diffusion of the operatic element in Resto- 
ration plays. This element affected many heroic plays, 
and yet some of the most typical instances of the heroic 
kind seem to have been, in so far as may be ascertained 
through the play itself and the stage directions, in the 
absence of external evidence, non-operatic. Such are 
"Herod and Mariamne," "Siege of Babylon," " Try- 
phon," and "Ibrahim"; the dignified "Mustapha," of 
which Pepys said, " a most excellent play for words and de- 
sign, as ever I did see " ; one of Betterton's successes, the 
" English Princess " ; and the highly lauded " Don Carlos." 

There is good reason for the existence of the operatic 
element in Restoration tragedies. In them the back- 
ground is of war : the hero wooes in armor, the battle- 
call impends. Thus the subject invites military display 
and martial music. They must have been literally noisy, 
the drum much heard. Dryden in his " Essay on Heroic 
Plays " advocates noise and fighting : 

" To those who object my frequent use of drums and 
trumpets, and my representation of battles ; I answer, I 
introduced them not on the English stage ; Shakespeare 
used them frequently ; and though Jonson shows no bat- 
tle in his * Catiline/ yet you hear from behind the scenes 



APPENDIX A 207 

the sounding of trumpets, and the shouts of fighting 
armies. But, I add further, that these warlike instru- 
ments, and even their presentation of fighting on the 
stage, are no more than necessary to produce the effects 
of an heroic play." 

The characters were royal as well as martial, and 
therefore richness of costume arid scenery was appro- 
priate, and afforded an opportunity to the costumer and 
the scene-painter. The visible appearance of the super- 
natural was common ; devils, ghosts, and spirits of all 
kinds abounded, and thus the ingenuity of the stage 
carpenter was exercised in the construction of machines. 
Then there was dancing, and its rise and popularity in 
England as a form of theatrical attraction was of course 
contemporaneous with the introduction of women on the 
stage ; and so there was a demand for dancing-masters. 
A great many of the serious plays contained one or more 
of these elements, and owed their success in part to the 
costumer, stage-carpenter, scene-painter, dancing-master, 
and musician. 

Shadwell, in the preface to " Psyche," appears to have 
acknowledged this indebtedness more frankly than any 
other of his contemporaries : 

" All the instrumental musick (which is not mingled 
with the vocal) was composed by that great master. 
Seignior Gio. Baptista Draghi, Master of the Italian 
Musick to the King. The dances were made by the 
most famous master of France, Monsieur St. Andree. 
The Scenes were painted by the ingenious artist, Mr. 
Stephenson. In those things that concern the Ornament 
or Decoration of the Play, the great Industry and Care 
of Mr. Betterton ought to be remembered, at whose 
desire I wrote upon this subject." 



208 THE ENGLISH HEROIC PLAY 

There were mauy plays iii which operatic features, 
although present, were of little consequence. Such are 
" Destruction of Troy," " Great Favorite," " Marcelia," 
" Rival Kings," and " Siege of Memphis." There were 
others which would admit of such features, and yet now 
naught but the words remain, and it is difficult to deter- 
mine to what extent other features entered — so fleeting 
are the names and things that make for theatrical rather 
than for dramatic success. There are still others wherein 
the gorgeousness of their production has become stage- 
legend, wherein also their total effect and success were 
largely due to external means rather than, and sometimes 
in spite of, their dramatic quality. Settle's " Empress 
of Morocco" was one — wondrously staged, immediately 
successful, arousing discussion and enmity, and dramati- 
cally without merit. Most of Dryden's heroic plays de- 
pended partly for their success ujDon externals ; although 
amazing literary achievements, they were produced with 
all the advantages of accessories that the theatre pos- 
sessed. In them there was considerable music which was 
important, although incidental, and the fact that Purcell 
composed for " Indian Emperor," " Indian Queen," 
" Aureng-Zebe," and " Tyrannic Love " (Hogarth claims 
that "the last-named piece w^as made less absurd by the 
beauty of the music than it would otherwise have been) 
has assured their permanence in the annals of another 
art besides literature. Dryden further admits, in the 
" Essay " above referred to, that he is not at all ashamed 
of resorting to stage devices : " That the Red Bull has 
formerly done the same, ... is no more an argument 
against our practice than it would be for a physician to 
forebear an aj^proved medicine, because a montebank has 
used it with success." 



APPENDIX A 209 

Lovers of literature usually claim that the combi- 
nation of literature and music is pernicious to their art, 
for although a lyric independently written may then be 
set to music so happily that the two become inseparably 
associated, the conscious writing of words to suit music 
already composed is frequently incompatible with the 
natural expression of poetic genius. Dryden's disrespect 
for the opera was partly due to his appi-eciation of this 
fact. Ward, as a historian, thus insists on the literary 
worthlessness of operas : " Few English dramatic works 
possessing any literary importance are included among 
the contributions to this hybrid species." And Addison 
was so impressed with the incompatibility of the two 
arts that he came to the conclusion that "nothing is 
capable of being set to music that is not nonsense." 

So the influence of opera upon the heroic play and 
upon Restoration drama in general, refers only second- 
arily to the relation between literature and music, to the 
introduction of a new art into the previously peculiar 
field of the spoken drama. But in the main it means 
nothing more nor less than a hitherto unprecedented 
recognition of the numerous and varied features that 
make for theatrical effectiveness ; and whereas they 
were from the beginning considered under the broad 
head " operatic," they antedated, in fact, that set art-form 
which distinguished the early years of the eighteenth 
century, — a form which owed little to its early English 
counterpart. " It was perfectly true that, at that time 
' our English music was quite rooted out.' . . . Purcell, 
though not twenty years dead, was as clean forgotten as 
if he had never been." — Hogarth, i ; 218. 

The eighteenth century, moreover, witnessed the de- 
cline of both music and opera : " What hope or expec- 



210 THE ENGLISH HEROIC PLAY 

tation then can the public entertain of receiving that 
rational, that irreproachable delight which the theatre is 
capable of affording us through the medium of music? 
If managers know not what it is, and if it is not to be 
known through the theatre, much less, heaven knows, is 
it to be known through the opera ; a spectacle where the 
dance is the plot and the opera the episode ; but remarks 
of this complexion will come better after I have gone 
through an account of music, which, during forty years, 
grew into the highest perfection in this country, and is 
now sunk into insignificance." — Dibdin (1795), V; 213. 

At the Restoration arose the question which has lasted 
to the present day, as to the legitimacy of the dramatic 
poets permitting or inviting the introduction of parts that 
appealed primarily to the eye and the ear rather than to 
the understanding for the attainment of a definite object. 
Although Dry den did not believe in operatic features sup- 
planting the play proper in importance, he approved the 
introduction of externals for the purpose of helping the 
verisimilitude. He says in the " Essay " : They " are no 
more than necessary to produce the effects of an heroic 
play ; that is, to raise the imagination of the audience, and 
to persuade them, for the time, that what they behold on 
the tiieatre is really performed. The poet is then to 
endeavour an absolute dominion over the minds of the 
spectators, for though our fancy will contribute to its own 
deceit, yet a writer ought to help its operation." 

Gildon(?) (Life of Betterton, p. 6) is of the same opin- 
ion : " Tho this be affirm'd by some, others have laid it 
to the Charge of Mr. Betterton as the first Innovator on 
our rude Stage, as a Crime ; nay as the Destruction of 
good Playing; but I think with very little Show of 
Reason. . . . For how that which helps the Representa- 



APPENDIX A 211 

tioii by assisting the pleasing Delusion of the Mind in 
regard of the place, should spoil the Acting, I cannot 
imagine." On the other hand, this growing tendency- 
had its censors. 

It may be difficult to free the mind from the conviction 
that attention to the externals of stage-craft is inimical to 
the fullest exercise of the imagination, so deep-rooted 
is the modern credence in the superior keenness of the 
Elizabethan audience in this regard over all its successors. 
It would seem that, necessarily, absence of stage-adorn- 
ment must have concentrated the attention to a degree 
since unequalled upon the thought of the writer and upon 
the actor's delivery. Nevertheless, the change from a 
barren to a furnished stage was inevitable, as was also 
the change from the conception that a play was made 
by the partnership of poet and actor to the conception 
of it as a product of the harmonious combination of sev- 
eral arts ; and there is danger of over-estimating the dele- 
terious effects of this combination. For the play, after all, 
remains the thing, and there have been other great actors 
than and since Burbage. The player's art was still an art 
in the eighteenth century, and the decline of tragedy, if it 
was at all related to the rise of stage-craft, certainly was 
not brought about principally by that rise. At any rate, 
evidence seems to be wanting that the rhyming dramatists 
of the Restoration were controlled to any marked extent by 
the presence of operatic features. Such features were not 
inherent but incidental, and not invariable, as there are 
plays of the same species with and without them. And 
that they do not determine the species is indicated by the 
similarity of the plays with this element to those with- 
out it. 

The operatic and heroic elements existed side by side 



212 THE ENGLISH HEROIC PLAY 

with strangely little directing power over each other. 
As the century advanced, a few men of pronounced abil- 
ity, with a liking for manners and satire, succeeded in 
perpetuating their own taste and that of their times by 
the composition of so-called Restoration comedy. But 
the flowering time of Restoration tragedy was earlier — in 
the reign of Charles II. Both products indicate a greater 
interest in what appealed to the understanding than these 
forty years of dramatic activity are usually credited with. 
There are no English plays that are more coldly intel- 
lectual than Congreve's, and heroic plays were intended 
to make an intellectual appeal ; the long rhymed speeches 
indicate an attention real or affected in the art of deliv- 
ery ; and the frequency of argumentation, a liking for a 
certain kind of mental exercise. 

Therefore, although it is true that operatic features 
entered into most heroic plays, the primary distinction 
of appealing to the understanding always existed, and 
the heroic element, while it lasted, continued true to its 
ideals. 



APPENDIX B 

A BRIEF SURVEY OF THREE HEROIC PLAYS \ 

IN OUTLINE, AS CONTRASTED WITH SHAKE- ' 

SPEARE ; 

SHAKESPEARE'S KING RICHARD III ; 

DRAMATIS PEESON^ 

King Edward the Fourth, "] 

Edward, Prince of Wales, afterward King I sons to the 

Edward V, [ king. :] 

Richard, Duke of York, J ] 

George, Duke of Clarence, "I ^j^^thers to the ' 
Richard, Duke of Gloucester, afterward King j- , . 

Richard III, J ^" ] 

A young sou of Clarence. ■, 

Henry, Earl of Richmond, afterward King Henry VH. ] 
Cardinal Bourchier, Archbishop of Canterbury. 
Thomas Rotherham, Archbishop of York. 
John Morton, Bishop of Ely. 

Duke of Buckingham. ■ 

Duke of Norfolk. ; 
Earl of Surrey, his son. 

Earl Rivers, brother to Elizabeth. j 

Marquis of Dorset and Lord Grey, sons to Elizabeth. i 

Earl of Oxford. \ 

Lord Hastings. : 

Lord Stanley, called also Earl of Derby. ; 

Lord Lovel. *[ 

Sir Thomas Vaughan. ■] 

Sir Richard Ratcliff. j 

Sir William Catesby. i 

213 ] 

i 



214 THE ENGLISH HEROIC PLAY 

Sir James Tyrrel. 

Sir James Blount. 

Sir Walter Herbert. 

Sir Robert Brakenbury, Lieutenant of the Tower. 

Christopher Urswick, a priest. Another priest. 

Tressel and Berkeley, gentlemen attending on the Lady Anne. 

Lord Mayor of London. Sheriff of Wiltshire. 

Elizabeth, queen to King Edward IV. 

Margaret, widow of King Henry VI. 

Duchess of York, mother to King Edward IV. 

Lady Anne, widow of Edward, Prince of Wales, son to King 
Henry VI: afterward married to Richard. 

A young daughter of Clarence (Margaret Plantagenet) . 

Ghosts of those murdered by Richard HI, Lords and other at- 
tendants ; a Pursuivant, Scrivener, Citizens, Murderers, 
Messengers, Soldiers, etc. 



CARYL'S (?) ENGLISH PRINCESS j 

] 

THE PEESONS \ 

King Richard the Third. < 

Queen Dowager of Edward the Fourth. ii 

Princess Elizabeth, daughter of Edward the Fourth. '5 

Earl of Richmond, Crown'd Henry the Seventh. \ 

Earl of Oxford. ; 
Lord Stanly, 
liord Strange, his son. 
Lord Chanden of Bretany. 
Sir William Stanley. 

Chariot, page to the Princess. , 

Lord Lovel. * 

Sir William Catesby. J! 

Sir Richard Ratclife. * 

Miles Forrest. ■ 

The Prior of Litchfield. ' 
A Captain, a Lieutenant, Souldiers, Guards, and Attendants. 



APPENDIX B 216 

OUTLINE OF THE PLOT 

Act I 

Richard the Third desires for his wife, Princess Eliza- 
beth, daughter of Henry the Fourth, who is engaged to 
Earl of liichmond, crowned Henry the Seventh. He 
commissions Sir William Stanley to advance his cause. 
Elizabeth's mother, the queen, advises the princess to 
accept Kichard, but she refuses to do so. 

Act II 

Concerns the relation of minor characters, particularly 
Sir AVilliam Stanley, to the main plot, and the story of 
Chariot, the page. 

Act III 

Scene between the princess and the king, in which he, 
after wooing in vain, says he will see to her death. 
First appearance of Richmond in his camp. Enter a 
prior, who prophesies for him success in love and war. 

Act IV 

Description of scene in the camp of both Richmond 
and the king. Richmond resolves to visit the princess 
the night before the battle, which he does. The king 
has a dream in which he sees the ghosts of those he has 
murdered. 

Act V 

Richmond kiUs the king and successfully wooes the 
princess. 



216 THE ENGLISH HEROIC PLAY 

The above is the main story of this play. The princi- 
pal under-stories are those (1) of Chariot and (2) Sir 
William Stanley. Chariot is the runaway daughter of 
Lord Chanden, of Bretany, in Richmond's army. She 
falls in love with Richmond, is disguised as a boy, — 
page to the princess, — carries love messages from the 
earl to the princess, and remains so true to her higher 
self, that in the last act she has the priucess change 
costumes with her that danger may fall upon herself if 
detected. She finally retires to a monastery. (2) Sir 
William Stanley hopelessly loves the princess. In the 
last act, as a matter of self-sacrifice, he disguises himself 
as Richmond, in order to deceive Richard, thus success- 
fully helping Richmond in his victory. 

The following song (Act III, Sc. 4) is in character with 
the prevailing atmosphere of the play. 

SONG 

I 

** Tyrant, thou seek'st in vain 
With her pure Blood thy guilty Sword to stain ; 
Heaven does that Sacred Blood design 
To be the Source of an Immortal Line. 
Death will not dare to touch that Heart, 
Which Love has chosen for his dart. 

Chorus 

Fair Innocence and Beauty are 
Of watchful Heaven the chiefest care ; 
But the devouring Monster shall 
A sacrifice to Justice fall. 



APPENDIX B 



217 



Richmond does flye to your Redress ; 
(Love's Messenger can do no less.) 
His Sword shall with one Blow 
Cut off your Fetters and the Tyrant too. 
All Resistance vain will prove 
When Valour is inspir'd by Love. 



Chorus 

Tyrants' by Heaven and Earth are curst; 
They swell with Blood untill they burst ; 
But Lovers are wise Nature's care ; 
What Tyrants mine they repair." 



SHAKESPEARE'S ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA 



DRAMATIS PERSONS 



Mark Antony, 

Octavius Caesar, 

M. ^melius Lepidus, 

Demitius Enobarbus, 

Ventidius, 

Eros, 

Scarus, 

Dercetas, 

Demetrius, 

Philo, 

Mecaenas, 

Agrippa, 

Dolabella, 

Proculeius, 

Thyreus, 

Gallus. 



triumvirs. 



friends to Antony. 



friends to Caesar. 



218 THE ENGLISH HEROIC PLAY 

Menas, ] 

Menecrates, r friends to Pompey. 

Varrius. J 

Taurus, lieutenant-general to Caesar. 

Canidius, lieutenant-general to Antony. 

Silius, an officer in Ventidius's army. 

Euphronius, an ambassador from Antony to Caesar. 

Alexas, 



attendants on Cleopatra. 



Mardian, a Eunuch, 

Selucus, 

Diomedes, 

A Soothsayer. A Clown. 

Cleopatra, queen of Egypt. 

Octavia, sister to Csesar and wife to Antony. 

Charmian , J attendants on Cleopatra. 

Iras, i 

Officers, Soldiers, Messengers, and other attendants. 



SEDLEY'S ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA 

PEESONS EEPEESENTED ; 

Csesar. Photinus. 1 

^S"PP^- J!7^°^' I two Egyptian Lords. | 

Mecsenas. Chilax. ) \ 

Lucilius, a Roman. Cleopatra. 

Thyreus. Octavia. \ 

Antony. Iras. ; 

Canidius. Charmion. \ 

Guards, Messengers, "Villains, Souldiers, and Attendants, Men ■, 

and Women. '. 

OUTLINE OF THE PLOT i 

Act I j 

Description of state of affairs after the sea-fight; 

Antony controlled by Cleopatra; Hatred of Egyptian < 

Lords for him ; Roman friends advise him to fight and j 

save his honor. ■] 



APPENDIX B 219 

Act II 

Photinus, Caesar's spy, evidently an Egyptian who loves 
Iras, seeks through proving false to Antony and friendly 
to Caesar, to gain Antony's throne and have his love for 
Iras rewarded, as she promises. Mecaenas advises Caesar 
to take harsh measures against Antony, and tells Octavia 
he thus acts because of love for her, which learning she 
commands him in the name of that love to cease. 



Act III 

Thyreus, ambassador from Rome, offers peace ; he has 
a private interview with Cleopatra, in which he tells her 
not to fear for herself whatever becomes of Antony. He 
makes love to Cleopatra, and they are discovered by 
Antony. Cleopatra claims innocence. The army shout 
for Thyreus's release. 

Act IV 

Octavia accuses Caesar of taking harsh measures against 
Antony, not for love of her as he feigned, but for ambition. 

Antony kills Thyreus and learns of Cleopatra's inno- 
cence from him. Photinus discovered in his treachery, 
yet pardoned by Antony who is victorious. 

Act V 

Caesar victorious. News brought to Antony. Photinus 
in order to get Antony out of the way tells him Cleopatra 
is dead. Antony thereupon wounds himself. Lucilius 
declines to be instrumental in his lord's death and kills 
himself. Antony dies in Cleopatra's arms. Cleopatra 
takes unto herself an asp. Charmion does likewise, first 



220 THE ENGLISH HEROIC PLAY 

applying it to Iras who would live. All then die. On 
which scene Caesar and his men enter. Photinus con- 
sLimmates the death of Iras, on which Iras' brother kills 
him. 

There are two scenes which are representative of Res- 
toration treatment of a tragedy theme: one is a love 
meeting between Antony and the Egyptian (Act I, Sc. 2), 
and the other is Antony's death (Act V). 

" Cleop. For you my Peoples love and more I lost, 
Must I not keep what has so dearly cost ? 

Ant. Ah Madam, you shou'd take the weakest part, 
And help a Lover to defend his Heart, 
Tho swounding Men with ease resign their Breath, 
Their careful Friends still pull 'm back from Death. 
You should my Lethargy of Honour chide, 
And drive me tho unwilling, from your side. 
Die at your feet the meanest Lover might, 
But in your quarrel the whole World shall fight. 

Cleop. If I am Captive to the Romans made ; 
Surpriz'd in this weak place, or else betray'd ; 
Think not I'le live to be redeem'd again. 
And like a Slave of my proud Lords complain. 
At the first Dawn of my ill Fate I'le die. 

Ant. O name not Death we'l meet in Triumph here: 
I'le raise the Siege e're you have time to fear. 

Cleop. But then your Love, in absence, will it last ? 
Men think of joys to come, and slight the past. 

Ant. My Heart shall like those Trees that East does 
show, 
Where Blossoms and ripe Fruit hang on one Bough. 
With new desires, soft hopes, at once be prest ; 
And all those Riper Joys, Love gives the blest. 



APPENDIX B 221 

Courage and Love shall sway each in their turn, 

I'le fight to conquer, conquer to return. 

Seeming Ambitious to the publick view, 

I'le make my private end and dearer, You. 

This Storm once past ; in Peace and Love we'l Raign, 

Like the Immortal Gods, the Giants slain. 

Cleop. Moments to absent Lovers tedious grow; 
'Tis not how time, but how the mind does go. 
And once Antonius wou'd have thought so too. 

Ant. Dearer than ever think not that I part. 
Without the utmost Torment of my Heart. 
Whil'st you perswade, your danger chides me stay, 
Make me not cast me and your Self away. 
How well I lov'd, you did at Actium see. 
When to be near you I left Victory. 
And chose to be companion of your flight, 
Rather than conquer in a distant Fight. 
Press not that heart you know so well, too far, 
Our Fortune will no second frailty bear. 

Cleop. The truest Misers choose to sit about, 
And tell their wealth : but dare not trust it out. 
I know as well as you, 'tis fit you go. 
Yet what is best I cannot let you do. 

A nt. For my attendance I some few will take ; 
All other Romans of your Guard I make. 

Cleop. If you must go, it quickly shall appear, 
My love sought this delay, and not my fear. 
When you attaque, we'l sally from the Town, 
And blood instead of Nile our Plain shall drown. 
We'l in the midst of Ccesar's Army meet. 
And like Bellona I my Mars will greet. 

Ant. Wou'd Goddesses themselves to me endear. 
In Cleopatra's shape they must appear. 



222 THE ENGLISH HEROIC PLAY 

Cleop. My heart can danger though not absence bear, 
To Love, 'tis Wax, but Adamant to Fear. 

Ant. Mine has such Courage from your Firmness took, 
That I can ahnost bear a parting look. 

Cleop. Take it ; and each unto their charge make haste. 

Ant. Our hardest victory I hope is past. 

Exeunt omnes." 

Enter Antonius, Cleopatra, Charmion and Iras 
In the Monument 

" Anto. 'Twas I that pull'd on you the hate of Rome^ 
And all your Ills, past, present, and to come. 
It is not fit nor possible I live. 
And my dear Queen, it growes unkind to grieve. 

Cleop. 'Twas I that lost you in each Roman mind ; 
And to your mine can you still be kind ? 
How can you bear this Tyranny of Fate, 
And not the cause, your Cleopatra hate. 

Anto. So Venus look't, when the IdaUan boar 
The tender side of her Adonis tore ; 
Nor yields my Queen in Beauty or in grief, 
When half the World under my rule was plac't 
Your love was all the joy that I cou'd tast, 
It was my chief delight, and is my last. 
I dye, and have but one short w^ord to say ; 
But you must swear, my Queen you will obey. 

Cleop. By all our love I will my death command, 
And see the eager duty of my hand. 

Anto. Y''our death ! it is the only thing I fear; 
And Fate no other way can reach me here. 

Cleop. Down from a throne to any private State ; 



APPENDIX B 223 

It is a dismal Precipice to the Great. 
I giddy with the horrid prospect grow ; 
And shall fall in, unless Death help me now. 

Anto. Heav'n that success does to my Arms deny, 
Whispers a Roman Soul, and bids him dye. 
Our case is different ; to Caesar sue, 
Tho me he hate, he needs must pity you. 
Your Beauty and my Love were all your Crime, 
And you must live my Queen. 

Cleop. When you are dead — 
To be despis'd, reproach't, in triumph lead ; 
A Queen and Slave ! who wou'd not life renounce, 
Rather than bear those distant names at once. 

Anto. But you may live a Queen; say you obey'd 
Through fear ; and were compelled to give me aid ; 
That all your Subjects private orders had 
Not to resist him, and my Cause betray'd. 
Say, that at last you did my death procure ; 
Say anything that may your Life and Crown secure. 

Cleop. 'Twere false and base, it rather shall be said 
I kill'd myself when I beheld you dead. 

Anto. Me the unhappy cause of all your wo ! 
Your own, and your dear Country's overthrow. 
Remember I was jealous, rash, soon mov'd, 
Suspected no less fiercely than I lov'd ; 
How I Thyreus kill'd, your Love accus'd, 
And to your kind defence my faith refus'd. 
From shame and rage I soon shall be at rest, 
And Death of thousand ills hath chose the best. 

\^He faints. 

Cleop. O stay ! and take me with you. 

Anto. Dearest Queen, 
Let my Life end before your Death begin. 



224 THE ENGLISH HEROIC PLAY 

Rome ! thy freedom does with me expire, 

And thou art left, obtaining thy desire." [Dies. 

Antony says (Act II, Sc. 2) that he married Octavia to 
avert a " growing storm." 

" Chop. O my Antonius ! how I fear this Peace ! 
And must I to Octavia yield my place ? 

1 love you so, that very sound wou'd kill, 
And leave you free the promise to fulfil. 

Ant. Were I to gain the Empire of mankind, 
And for that pow'r Eternity assign'd ; 
I cou'd not to the hateful change submit, 
Nor my best Queen so barbarously quit. 

Cleop. But your Octavia, loving, young, and fair, 
And such a Rival ! how can I but fear? 

Ant. Her Hymen never did a Moment please. 
The hard Condition of a needful Peace ; 
From every part I saw the growing storm, 
A sudden shelter in her arms I took, 
Which when 'twas over I again forsook." 

And he excuses his present conduct thus : 

*' From past engagements, present Love, set free. 
Hymeu is but the Vulgars Deity." 

One, to whom Hymen is but the Vulgars Deity, would 
naturally think well of Cleopatra's virtue. 

"T' attempt the spotless Honor of my Queen, 
Is such a Crime, as it is death to mean." 

(Act IV, Sc. 4.) 

Though Cleopatra is not popularly regarded for her 
spotless honor, yet mention of it is not entirely unprece- 
dented. Cf . Chaucer's " Legend of Good Women " : 



APPENDIX B 225 

" This noble quene eek lovecle so this knight, 
Through his desert, and for his chivalrye. 
As certainly, but — if that bokes lye. 
He was of persone and of gentilesse, 
And of discrecioun and hardiness, 
"Worthy to any wight that liven may, 
And she was fair as is the rose in May. 
And, for to maken shortly is the beste. 
She wex his wyf , and hadde him as her leste." 



SHAKESPEARE'S HENRY FIFTH 

PEESONS EEPEESENTED 

King Henry the Fifth. 

Duke of Gloucester, ) , ^, ^ ^i. xr- 
T^ 1 * -D li. J [ brothers to the Kmg. 
Duke of Bedford, ) ^ 

Duke of Exeter, uncle to the King. 

Duke of York, cousin to the King. 

Earls of Salisbury, Westmoreland, and Warwick. 

Archbishop of Canterbury. 

Bishop of Ely. 

Earl of Cambridge, "] 

Lord Scroop, [- conspirators against the King. 

Sir Thomas Grey, J 

Sir Thomas Erpingham, Gower, Fluellen, Macmorris, Jamy, 

officers in King Henry's army. 
Bates, Court, Williams, soldiers in the same. 
Nym, Bardolph, Pistol, formerly servants to Falstaff, now 

soldiers in the same. 
Boy, servant to them. 
A herald. 
Chorus. 

Charles the Sixth, King of France. 
Lewis, the Dauphin. 
Dukes of Burgundy, Orleans, and Bourbon. 



226 THE ENGLISH HEROIC PLAY 

The Constable of France. i 

Rambures and Grandpre, French lords. ^ 

Governor of Harfleur. - 

Montjoy, a French herald. ^ 

Ambassadors to the King of England. i 

Isabel, Queen of France. i 

Katharine, daughter to Charles and Isabel. * 

Alice, a lady attending on the Princess Katharine. j| 

Quickly, Pistol's wife, an hostess. .1 

Lords, Ladies, Officers, French and English Soldiers, Messen- 1 
gers and Attendants. 



ORRERY'S HENRY FIFTH 



PERSONS 

Henry the Fifth. Duke of Burgundy. 

Duke of Bedford. Constable of France. 

Duke of Exeter, Bishop of Arras. 

Earl of Warwick. Earl of Charoloys. 

Owen Tudor. Count de Chastel. 

Archbishop of Canterbury. Count de Blaumont. 

The Dauphin. Monsier Colemore. 

WOMEN 

Queen of France. Countess of La Mar. 

Princess Katharine. A French Lady. 

Princess Anne of Burgundy. 



OUTLINE OF THE PLOT 

Act I 

The war between France and England — then Tudor's 
love for Katharine related by herself, and Bedford's love 
for Anne by herself. 



APPENDIX B 227 



Act II 



This may be divided into three parts. (1) The king 
informs his courtiers of his terms of peace to France 
and of his love for Katharine. (2) The queen debates 
with her courtiers whether to yield to England or not. 
(3) Tudor, the lover of Katharine, expresses to Katharine 
the king's love for her, and is made to understand that 
his own case is hopeless. 

Act III 

The political position of the Duke of Burgundy de- 
scribed. The king visits Katharine incognito, discovers 
himself, and both are discovered by the Dauphin, whom 
the king disarms. Katharine shows the king means of 
escape. 

Act IV 

Unsuccessful peace negotiations between French and 
English. Scene between the king and Tudor, in which 
the latter reveals the story of his love. The king 
promises to plead Tudor's cause. 

Act V 

The opening and conclusion of this act are taken up 
with the victory of Henry in politics ; the middle with 
his victory in love. 

Henry the Fifth's character in Orrery's play is not on 
the whole remarkable, and yet it may properly serve as 
an instance of a hero. It is not conspicuous; still it 
possesses the usual traits of its kind, which in brief are 
excellence in war and love, and it does not admit any 
elements not also found in other heroic plays. 



APPENDIX C 

BURLESQUE OF THE HEROIC PLAY 

The following scene taken from [Arrowsmitli's] "Refor- 
mation, a Comedy." 1673. Act IV, Sc. 1, is one of the most 
comprehensive satires on rhymed tragedy. The scene is 
Italy, the characters Italian except Tutor, an Englishman, 
who is questioned as to the manner of dramatic composition 
in his country, and thus gives instructions how to write an 
heroic play. 

'•'■Tut. Faith — well, for an essay. I guess the Gentle- 
mans but a beginner. I myself — 

Pis. Now he's in. {Aside.) 

Tut. Writ with the fame much success at first, 'twas 
industry and much converse that made me ripe ; I tell you 
Gentlemen, when I first attemped this way, I understood no 
more of Poetry than one of you. 

Fed. This is strange impudence. 1 . 

Ant. 'Tis nothing yet. J 

Tut. There are many pretenders but you see how few 
succeed; and bating two or three of this nation as Tasso^ 
Ariosto and Guarini, that write indifferently well, the rest 
must not be named for Poesy : we have some three or four, 
as Fletcher, Johnson, Shakespear, Davenant, that have 
scribled themselves into the bulk of follies and are admired 
to, but ne'er knew the laws of heroick or dramatick poesy, 
nor faith to write true English neither. 

Ant. 'Tis very much I hope sir your heroick play goes on. 

Tut, As fast as a piece of that exactness can. I'le only 
leave a pattern to the world for the succeeding ages and 
have done. 

Fed. Oh Sir you'l wrong the world. 

228 



APPENDIX C 229 

Tut. No faith Sir I grow weary of applause. 

Ant. Will you give me leave to ask the way for others 
to attain to your perfection ? 

Tut. I will not say but that it may be done, but trust me 
you'l find it hard Gentlemen, and since you are my friends 
I'ie tell you. 

Fed. You will oblige us Sir. 

Tut. First I speak of Tragedy, which, let the world say 
what it will and doat on little things, I scrible now and then, 
as good faith they doe Gentlemen strangely ; you shall have 
them — but I don't love to praise myself. Tragedy I say's 
my Masterpiece. 

Ant. Everything you do seems so. 

Tut. Nay, nay, pray forbear Gentlemen. — To go on: 
I take a subject, as suppose the Siege of Candy, or the con- 
quest of Fla7iders, and by the way Sir let it alwayes be 
some warlike action ; you can't imagine what a grace a 
Drum and Trumpet give a Play. Then Sir I take you some 
three or four or half a dozen Kings, but most commonly two 
or three serve my turn, not a farthing matter whether they 
lived within a hundred years of one another, not a farthing 
Gentlemen, I have tryed it, and let the Play be what it will, 
the Characters are still the same. 
. Pis. Trust me Sir, this is a secret of your art. 

Tut. As Sir you must alwayes have two Ladies in Love 
with one man, or two men in love with one woman ; if you 
make them the Eather and the Son or two Brothers, or two 
Friends, 'twill do the better. There you know is opportunity 
for love and honour and Fighting, and all that. 

Fed. Very well Sir. 

Tut. Then Sir you must have a Hero that shall fight 
with all the world ; yes i' gad, and beat them too, and half 
the gods into the bargain if occassion serves. 

Ant. This method must needs take. 

Tut. And does Sir. But give me leave and mark it for 



230 THE ENGLISH HEROIC PLAY 

infallible, in all you write reflect upon religion and the 
Clergy ; you can't imagine how it tickles, you shall have 
the Gallants get those verses all by heart, and fill their letters 
with them to their Country friends ; believe me this one 
piece of art has set off many an indifferent Play, and but 
you are my friends — 

Ant. You honour us. 

Tut. Last of all, be sure to raise a dancing singing ghost 
or two, court the Players for half a dozen new scenes and 
fine cloaths (for take me if there ben't much in that too) put 
your story into rime, and kill enough at the end of the Play, 
and Probatiim est your business is done for Tragedy." 



One of the best-known heroic plays was Settle's " Empress 
of Morocco." A quotation, chiefly concerned with imagery, 
from the Prologue to T. Buffet's burlesque of the same 
name, 1674, follows. There are other instances of a parody 
of a play bearing the same title as the original. Frequently, 
however, the title itself suggests both source and character, 
as "Mock Tempest" and "Psyche Debauch'd." 

"As when some dogrel-monger raises 
Up Muse, to flatter Doxies praises, 
He talks of Gems and Paradises, 
Perfumes and Arabian Spices : 
Making up Phantastick Posies 
Of Eye-lids, Eore-heads, Cheeks and Noses, 
Calling them Lillies, Pinks and Roses. 
Teeth Orient Pearl, Coral Lips are. 
Neck's Alablaster and Marble Hips are ; 
Prating of Diamonds, Saphyrs, Rubies, 
What a Rudder's with these Boobies? 
Dim Eyes are Stars, and Red hairs Guinnies : 
And thus described by these Ninnies, 



APPENDIX C 231 

As they sit scribling on Ale-Benches, 
Are homely dowdy Country Wenches. 
So when this Plot quite purg'd of Ale is, 
In naked truth but a plain Tale is ; 
And in such dress we mean to shew it, 
In spight of our damn'd Fustian Poet, 
Who has disguis'd it with dull Hist'ris, 
Worse than his Brethren e're did Mistress.'* 

The large quantity of contemporary allusions and refer- 
ences and the presence of burlesque are an undeniable proof 
of the popularity of the heroic play. The last line of the 
extract below, from the epilogue to the same farce, contains 
a very plausible generalization. 

" Be to this joy thus kind you'l rouse up yet, 
Much better Farce, one more Heroick Puppet ; 
When little Worm is prais'd it will so brag o't. 
That 'twill set Tail on end of bigger Maggot ; 
Since with success great Bard's grow proud and resty, 
To get good Plays be kind to bad Travesty." 

But in the Restoration there arose four kinds of 
dramatic entertainment : comedy of manners, heroic play, 
opera, and travesty. The name of D'Avenant is intimately 
associated with the beginnings of all of them, comedy only 
excepted. For it is said that the last act of the "Play- 
house to be Let," staged probably in 1664, and printed in 
1673, is " the earliest burlesque dramatic piece in the English 
language" (Dramatic Works of Sir William D'Avenant, 
edited by James Maidment and W. H. Logan, 1872, iv. 6). 
It is to be noted that travesty did not arise until the Golden 
Age of the English drama had passed, and it was not suc- 
cessful, in its early stages at least, in begetting good plays. 



APPENDIX D 

A LIST OF PLAYS WRITTEN PARTLY OR 
WHOLLY m HEROIC VERSE, TOGETHER 
WITH REPRESENTATIVE REFERENCES. 
1656-1703. 

Note. — The reference to Dibdin is to "History of the 
Stage " ; to Downes, Knight's edition of " Roscius Anglicanus " ; 
to Garnett, "Age of Dryden " ; to Gosse, " Seventeenth Century 
Studies"; to Jacob, "Poetical Register"; to Langbaine and 
Gildon, the latter's additions to the former's work; to Noel, 
the Introduction to Otway in the Mermaid series; to Saints- 
bury, the " Life of Dryden " ; to Scott, the first volume of the 
Scott-Saintsbury edition of Dryden. The reference to Baker is 
to the first edition of " Companion to the Play-house," whereas 
Biog. Dram, is an abbreviation for " Biographica Dramatica," 
an enlarged and altered edition of the same work. The other 
references are sufficiently self-explanatory. 

Unless otherwise stated, it is to be understood that a play 
was acted and published the same year. 



1675. 



Alcibiades. 


By Tho 


Baker. 








Dibdin. 


i. 100. 






Downes. 


p. 36. 






Garnett. 


p. 102. 






Genest. 


i. 177 (D. 


G. 


1675), 


Gosse. 


pp. 274, 277. 










232 



APPENDIX D 233 

Jacob, i. 195. 
Langbaine. p. 396. 
Noel. p. xi. 
Ward. i. 413. 

Almanzor and Almahide; or, the Conquest of 
Granada by the Spaniards. In two parts. 
By John Dryden. 1672. First part acted 1669 ; 
second part acted 1670. 

Biog. Dram. 

Garnett. pp. 85, 85. 

Genest. i. 101, 102 (T. R. 1670). 

Jacob, i. 81. 

Langbaine. p. 157. 

Saintsbury. p. 46. 

Scott, p. 95. 

Ward. iii. 360. 

Altemira. By Lord Orrery (Roger Boyle). 1702. 

Anon. Life of Betterton. p. 127. 

Biog. Dram. 

Genest. i. 260 (L. I. F. 1702). 

Jacob, i. 305. 

Ward. iii. 344. 

Amazon Queen; or, the Amours of Thalestris 
to Alexander the Great. By John Weston. 
1667. Never acted. 

Baker. 

Langbaine. p. 510. 

Langbaine and Gildon. p. 147. 



234 THE ENGLISH HEROIC PLAY 

Antony and Cleopatra. By Sir Charles Sedley. 
1677. 

Anon. Life of Betterton. p. 94. 
Genest. i. 208 (D. G. 1677). 
Langbaine. p. 487. 
Ward. iii. 447. 

Aureng-Zebe. By John Dryden. 1676. 

Garnett. p. 87. 

Genest. i. 174 (T. R. 1675). 

Langbaine. p. 156. 

Saintsbury. p. 56. 

Scott, p. 175. 

Ward. i. 370. 



Black Prince. By Lord Orrery (Roger Boyle). 

1669. Acted 1667. 

Genest. i. 70 (T. R. 1667). 
Langbaine. p. 27. 

Pepys' Diary. 19 Oct., 1667 ; 23 Oct., 1667 ; 1 April, 
1668. 
Ward. iii. 343. 

Boadicea, Queen of Great Britain. By Charles 
Hopkins. 1697. 

Anon. Life of Betterton. p. 125. 

Downes. p. 44. 

Genest. ii. 118 (L. L F. 1697). 

Jacob, p. 141. 

Langbaine and Gildon. p. 74. 



APPENDIX D 236 1 

j 

Caligula. By John Crowne. 1698. , 

'i 
Garnett. p. 115. | 

Genest. ii. 143 (D. L. 1698). ; 

Ward. i. 403. 

Cambyses, King of Persia. By Elkanah Settle. ' 

1671. Acted 1667. 

Anon. Life of Betterton. p. 81. 

Dibdin. iv. 188. 

Downes. p. 27. \ 

Genest. i. 73 (L. L F. 1667). 

Langbaine. p. 440. 

Prologue. See play. I 

Scott, p. 155 (foot-note). \ 

Ward. iii. 396. i 

i 

Charles VIII of France; or, the Invasion of i 

Naples by the French, History of. By John i 

Crowne. 1672. Acted 1671. ^ 

Dibdin. iv. 164. \ 

Downes. p. 32. 
Genest. i. 124 (D. G. 1671). 
Langbaine. p. 92. 

Ward. iii. 400. ; 

I 
Comical Revenge; or, Love in a Tub. Bt Sir 
George Etheredge. 1664. 

Anon. Life of Betterton, p. 77. ■ 

Baker. j 

Evelyn's Diary. 27 April, 1664. ; 
Downes. p. 24. 



236 THE ENGLISH HEROIC PLAY 

Genest. i. 54 (L. L F. 1664). 
Gosse. pp. 235, 236, 239, 242. 
Langbaine. p. 187. 
Pepys' Diary. Oct. 29-31, 1666. 
Ward. iii. 444. 

Conquest of China by the Tartars. By Elkanah 
Settle. 1676. Acted 1674. 

Dibdin. iv. 188. 
Downes. p. 35. 
Genest. i. 170 (D. G. 1674). 
Langbaine. p. 440. 
Ward. iii. 393. 

Conspiracy ; or, the Change of Government. By 
W. Whitaker. 1680. 

Genest. i. 280 (D. G. 1680). 
Langbaine. p. 511. 

Destruction of Jerusalem by Titus Vespasian. 
In two parts. By John Crowne. 1677. 

Dibdin. iv. 164. 
Genest. i. 204 (T. R. 1677). 
Langbaine. pp. 95, 529. 
Ward. iii. 400. 

Destruction of Troy. By John Bankes. 1679. 

Acted 1678. 
Baker. 

Dibdin. iv. 197. 
Downes. p. 37. 
Genest. i. 241 (D. G. 1678). 
Langbaine. p. 7. 



APPENDIX D 237 

Don Carlos, Prince of Spain. By Thomas Otway. 
1676. 

Anon. Life of Betterton. p. 93. 

Garaett. p. 102. 

Dibdin. iv. 101. 

Downes. p. 36. 

Genest. i. 190 (D. G. 1676). 

Gosse. pp. 279, 281. 

Langbaine. p. 398. 

Noel. p. 2. 

Scott, p. 163. 

Ward. iii. 414. 

Double Distress. By Mrs. Mary Pix. 1701. 

Biog. Dram. 

Dibdin. iv. 344. 

Genest. i. 240 (L. I. F. 1701). 

Jacob, i. 204. 

Edgar; or, The English Monarch. By Thomas 
Rymer. 1678. Never acted. 
Baker. 

Dibdin. iv. 124. 
Genest. i. 223. 
Langbaine. p. 434. 

Empress of Morocco. By Elkanah Settle. 1673. 
Acted 1671. 
Garnett. p. 118. 
Genest. i. 154 (D. G. 1673). 
Jacob, i. 220. 
Johnson. Life of Dryden. 
Langbaine. p. 440. 



238 THE ENGLISH HEROIC PLAY 

Scott, p. 158. 
Ward. iii. 396. 

English Princess; or, Death of Richard TIL 
By J. Caryl (?). 1667. 

Anon. Life of Betterton. p. 82. 
Downes. p. 27. 
Genest. i. 73 (L. I. F. 1667). 
Pepys' Diary. March 7, 1666-1667. 

Fatal Jealousie. By Nevil Payne (?). 1673. 

Acted 1672. 
Biog. Dram. 
Downes. p. 33. 
Genest. i. 144 (D. G. 1672). 
Langbaine. p. 531. 

Gloriana; or, the Court of Augustus C^sar. 
By Nathaniel Lee. 1676. 
Baker. 

Dibden. iv. 185. 
Genest. i. 185 (T. R. 1676). 
Langbaine. p. 322. 

Great Favorite ; or, the Duke of Lerma. By Sir 
Robert Howard. 1668. 

Genest. i. 80 (T. R. 1668). 
Langbaine. p. 276. 

Pepys' Diary. Jan. 11, 1667; Jan. 20, 1667; April 
18, 1668. 
Ward. iii. 394. 



APPENDIX D 239 

King Henry V; History of. By Lord Orrery 
(Roger Boyle). 1667. Acted 1664. 

Downes. p. 27. 

Genest. i. 53 (L. I. F. 1664). 

Langbaine. p. 28. 

Pepys' Diary. Aug. 10, 1664 ; Aug. 13, 1664 ; Aug. 17, 
1664 ; Sept. 28, 1664 ; Dec. 28, 1666 ; Feb. 13, 1666-1667 ; 
Oct. 19, 1667 ; July 6, 1668. 

Ward. iii. 342. 

Henry the Third of France Stabb'd by a Fryer 
WITH the Fall op the Guise. By Thomas 
Shipman. 1678. 
Genest. i. 229 (T. R. 1678). 
Langbaine. p. 473. 

Herod and Mariamne. By Samuel Pordage. 
1673. 

Genest. i. 171 (D. G. 1674). 
Langbaine. p. 406. 

Herod the Great. By Lord Orrery (Roger 
Boyle). 1694. Never acted. 

Genest. i. 131. 
Ward. iii. 344. 

Ibrahim, the Illustrious Bassa. By Elkanah 

Settle. 1677. Acted 1676. 
Genest. i. 187 (D. G. 1676). 
Langbaine. p. 441. 
Pepys' Diary. June 19, 1668. 
Ward. iii. 395. 



240 THE ENGLISH HEROIC PLAY 

Indian Emperor; or, Conquest of Mexico. By 
John Dryden. 1667. Acted 1665. 

Dibditt. iv. 157. 

Garnett. pp. 76-77. 

Genest. i. (T. R. 1665). 

Langbaine. p. 165. 

Pepys' Diary. Jan. 15, 1666-1667; Aug. 22, 1667; 
Oct. 28, 1667; Nov. 11, 1667; Jan. 14, 1667-1668; Mar. 
28, 1668 ; April 21, 1668. 

Saintsbury. p. 42. 

Scott, p. 71. 

Ward. iii. 349. 

Indian Queen. By Sir Robert Howard and John 
Dryden. 1665. Acted 1664. 

Evelyn's Diary. Feb. 5, 1664. 

Genest. i. 57 (T. R. 1665). 

Langbaine. p. 276. 

Pepys' Diary. Jan. 27, 1663-1664 ; June 27, 1668. 

Saintsbury. p. 42. 

Scott, p. 69. 

Ward. iii. 348. 

Love's Triumph ; or, the Royal Union. By Ed. 

Cooke. 1678. 
Baker. 

Langbaine. p. 71. 
Ward. iii. 295. 

King Saul, Tragedy of. By Rev. Joseph Trapp(?). 
1703. Never acted. 
Genest. x. 151. 



APPENDIX D 241 

Marcelia, or the Treacherous Friend. By Mrs. 
Francis Boothby. 1670. Acted 1669. 

Genest. i. 97 (T. R. 1669). 

Marriage -A-LA-MoDE. By John Dryden. 1673. 

Dibdin. iv. p. 166. 
Genest. i. 133 (T. R. 1672). 
Langbaine. p. 166. 
Saintsbury. p. 54. 
Scott, p. 122. 
Ward. iii. 366, 367. 

MusTAPHA, Son of Solyman the Magnificent. By 

Lord Orrery (Roger Boyle). 1668. Acted 1665. 

Downes. p. 25. 

Evelyn's Diary. Sept. 18, 1666. 

Genest. i. 61. 

Langbaine. p. 28. 

Pepys' Diary. April 3, 1665 ; Jan. 5, 1666-1667 ; Sept. 
3, 1667. 

Ward. iii. 343. 

Nero, Emperor of Rome; His Tragedy. By 

Nathaniel Lee. 1675. 
Genest. i. 172 (T. R. 1675). 
Gosse. p. 277. 
Langbaine. p. 324. 
Ward. iii. 408. 

Rival Kings; or, The Loves of Oroondates and 
Statira. By John Bankes. 1677. 
Baker. 
Dibdin. iv. 197. 



242 THE ENGLISH HEROIC PLAY 

Genest. i. 200 (T. R. 1677). 
Langbaine. p. 8. 

PiivAL Ladies. By John Dryden. 1664. Acted 1663. 

Genest. i. 50 (T. R. 1664). 

Langbaine. p. 167. 

Pepys' Diary. July 18, 1666 ; Aug. 2, 1666 ; Aug. 4, 
1664. 

Saintsbury. p. 42. 

Scott, pp. 68, 69. 

Ward. iii. 347. 

Rival Sisters ; or, the Violence of Love. By 

Robert Gould. 1696. 
Baker. 

Genest. ii. 75 (D. G. 1696). 

Jacob. 1. 119. 

Langbaine and Gildon. p. 65. 

Sacrifice. By Sir Francis Fane. 1686. Never 

acted. 
Genest. x. 147. 
Langbaine. p. 189. 

Secret Love ; or, The Maiden Queen. By John 

Dryden. 1668. 
Dibdin. iv. 157. 
Langbaine. p. 169. 

Pepys' Diary. Jan. 19, 1666-1667 ; Mar. 25, 1666-1667 ; 
Aug. 23, 1667 ; Jan. 24, 1667-1668 ; May 24, 1667. 
Saintsbury. p. 43. 
Scott, p. 89. 
Ward. iii. 350. 



APPENDIX D 243 

Siege of Babylon. By Samuel Pordage. 1678. 
Acted 1677. 

Anon. Life of Better ton. p. 95. 
Genest. i. 213 (D. G. 1677). 
Langbaine. p. 406. 

Siege of Memphis; or, the Ambitious Queen. 
By Thomas Durfey. 1676. 

Dibdin. iv. 180. 

Genest. iv. 183 (T. R. 1676). 

Langbaine. p. 183. 

Siege of Rhodes. By Sir William D'Avenant. 

1656. 
Downes. p. 20. 
Evelyn's Diary. Jan. 9, 1662. 
Genest. i. 37 (L. I. F. 1661). 
Knight, (pref . to Downes) pp. xv-xxii. 
Langbaine. p. 110. 

Pepys' Diary. June 2, 1661 ; Nov. 15, 1661 ; May 19, 
1662 ; Dec. 27, 1662 ; Sept. 23, 1664 ; Oct. 1, 1665 ; Jan. 
23, 1666 ; Dec. 19, 1668. 

Ward. iii. 328. 

Sophonisba; or, Hannibal's Overthrow. By 
Nathaniel Lee. 1676. 



Dibdin. iv. 185. 
Genest. i. 183 (T. R. 1676). 
Langbaine. p. 325. 
Ward. iii. 408-409. 



244 THE ENGLISH HEROIC PLAY 

State of Innocence ; and, Fall of Man. By John 
Dryden. 1674. Never acted. 

Dibdin. hi. 168. 
Jacob, i. 81. 
Genest. i. 180. 
Langbaine. p. 172. 
Scott, p. 140. 

Tryphon. By Lord Orrery (Roger Boyle). 1668. 

Genest. i. 87. (" Never acted.") 
Langbaine. p. 28. (" Acted.") 
Ward. iii. 344. 

Tyrannic Love ; or, the Virgin Martyr. By John 
Dryden. 1670. Acted 1669. 
Biog. Dram. iii. 
Dibdin. iv. 163. 
Gamett. p. 84. 
Genest. i. 94 (T. R. 1669). 
Hogarth, i. 119. 
Jacob, i. 82. 

Johnson. Life of Dryden. 
Langbaine. p. 173. 
Langbaine and Gildon. p. 47. 
Saintsbury. p. 44. 
Scott, p. 94. 

Vestal Virgin ; or, the Roman Ladies. By Sir 
Robert Howard. 1665. 

Genest. i. .56 (D. G. 1665). 
Langbaine. p. 277. 



INDEX 



Addison, Joseph, 31, 209. 

"Albion and Albanius," 196- 
199, 204. 

" Alcibiades," 40 n., 232. 

Alexis, 205. 

" Almanzor and Almahide": 
see " Conquest of Granada." 

"Alteraira," 17, 77, 102 n., 
131 u., 164 n., 233. 

" Amazon Queen," 17, 49, 80 u., 
88-92, 103 n., 125 n., 149 n., 
180 n., 183-184, 233. 

"Ambitious Queen": see 
"Siege of Memphis." 

«' Amboyna," 122 n., 145, 159 n., 
169 n. 

*' Amours of Thalestris to Alex- 
ander the Great " : see " Ama- 
zon Queen." 

Anonymous " Life of Better- 
ton," 210, 233, 234, 235, 237, 
238, 243. 

" Antony and Cleopatra " (Buf- 
fet's), 230-231. 

" Antony and Cleopatra " (Sed- 
ley's), 43, 152, 218-224, 234. 

"Antony and Cleopatra" 
(Shakespeare's), 43, 217-218. 

"Ariadne," 204. 

Ariosto, 191, 228. 

Aristotle, 27, 29. 

Arrowsmith, 228. 

" Auteng-Zebe," 34, 100, 106 n.. 



114 n., 120, 122 n., 124 n., 
125 n., 132 n., 133 n., 139, 154, 
161 n., 173 n., 175 n., 178 n., 
179, 187 n., 208, 234. 

Baker, D. E., 71, 205, 232, 233, 

235, 236, 237, 238, 240, 242. 
Bankes, John, 6 n., 22 u., 49, 

137, 236, 242. 
Belin, Mrs. Aphra, 56 n. 
Beljame's "Le Public et les 

Hommes de Lettres," 189 n. 
Betterton, 205, 206, 207, 210. 
" Biographia Dramatica," 71 n. 

205, 232, 233, 237, 238. 
"Black Prince," 19, 39 n., 79, 

113 n., 117 n., 130 n., 141 n., 

143, 153, 160 n., 234. 
"Boadicea," 141 n., 144, 154, 

234. 
Boothby, Mrs. F., 6 n., 101, 

241. 
Boyle, Roger : see Orrery. 
Braeegirdle, Mrs., 12 n. 
"Brutus of Alba," 204. 
Buckingham, Duke of, 165 n. 
Bulwer, 55 n. 
Burbage, 211. 

" Caligula," 35, 36, 40 n., 51 n., 
72-76, 111, 153, 159, 174-175, 
179 n., 235. 

Calprenede, 108, 109 n. 



245 



246 



INDEX 



Cambert, 204. 

" Cambyses," 25, 51 n., 98, 

235. 
Caryl, John, 22 n., 43, 54, 143, 

214, 238. 
"Cassandra," 204. 
" Catiline," 206. 
"Change of Government ": see 

" Conspiracy." 
Charles II, 23, 109 n., 123, 189, 

204, 212. 
" Charles VIII," 18, 131 n., 153, 

235. 
Chaucer's " Legend of Good 

Women," 224r-225. 
"Circe," 9, 13, 205. 
*' Cleopatre," 109 n. 
Clifford, Martin, 100 n. 
Collier's " Short View," 175. 
" Comical Revenge," 14, 17, 

102 n., 112 n., 154, 235. 
Congreve, 212. 
" Conquest of China," 21, 48 n., 

66-68, 98 n., 99 n., 152, 166 n., 

172 n., 236. 
" Conquest of Granada," 21, 

39, 46 n., 55-65, 77, 100, 113 n., 

118 n., 122 n., 125 n., 127, 

128 n., 130 n., 132 n., 176 n., 

177 n., 233. 
"Conquest of Mexico" : see 

" Indian Emperor." 
"Conspiracy," 77, 97, 98 n., 

155 n., 158, 170 n., 236. 
Cooke, Edward, 34 n., 240. 
"Court of Augustus Caesar": 

see " Gloriana." 
Courthope's " Addison," 123 n. 
Cowley, 3 n. 
Cromwell, Oliver, 10. 
Crowne, John, 15 n., 18n.,36n., 

72-73, 74, 128 n., 174, 190, 235, 

236. 



" Cruelties of the Dutch to the 
English Merchants": see 
" Amboyna." 

"Curious Impertinent": see 
" Married Beau." 

" Cynthia and Endymion," 204. 

D'Avenant, Dr. Charles, 9 n., 

13, 205. 

D'Avenant, Sir William, 2 n., 

14, 204, 228, 231, 243. 
Davis, Mary, 12 n. 

"Death of Richard III": see 
"English Princess." 

"Defence of an Essay of Dra- 
matic Poesy," 33. 

Denham, 3 n. 

"Destruction of Jerusalem," 
128, 174, 236. 

"Destruction of Troy," 6, 98 n., 
153, 208, 236. 

Dibdin's " History of the 
Stage," 210, 232, 235, 236, 
238, 240, 241, 243, 244. 

Donaldson's "Theatre of the 
Greeks," 16 n. 

" Don Carlos, " 40 n.,52n., 55 n., 
56 n., 125 n., 132 n., 173 n., 
206, 237. 

"Double Discovery": see 
" Spanish Friar." 

"Double Distress," 237. 

Downes, "Roscius Anglica- 
nus," 17, 203, 232, 234, 235, 
236, 237, 238, 239, 241, 243. 

Draghi, G. B., 207. 

Dryden, John, 2, 3, 6, 14, 17, 21, 
23,25,30,32, 33 u., 34 n., 39, 
40 n., 46 n., 47, 48 n., 49 n., 
51 n., 54, 56, 63, 65, 81, 86, 87, 
100, 106, 107, 108, 109 u., 110, 
122n., 124, 125, 132. 145,151n., 
155, 160, 162 n., 169, 173 n., 



INDEX 



247 



175 n., 190, 196, 198, 199, 201, 
205, 206, 208, 209, 210, 233, 

240, 242, 244. 

"Dryden's Essays," edited by 

W. P. Ker, 9n. 
Duffet, T., 230. 
** Duke of Lerma " : see"' Great 

Favorite." 
Durfey, Tliomas, 26 n., 204,243. 

Ecclestton, 205. 

"Edgar," 3 n., 19, 22, 26 n., 

141, 153, 154, 237. 
Edward's "Lyrical Drama," 

202, 203. 
"Empress of Morocco," 79, 97, 

99 n., 156, 174, 208, 230, 237. 
"English Monarch": see 

"Edgar." 
"English Princess," 22, 43, 72, 

79 n., 88 n., 118, 141 n., 142 

n., 143, 153, 181-182, 206, 

214-217, 238. 
"Essay on Heroic Plays," 47- 

48, 51 n., 64-65, 108 n., 124 n., 

198, 206, 208, 210. 
Etheridge, Sir George, 14, 235. 
Euripides, 20. 
Evelyn's Diary, 17, 235, 240, 

241, 243. 

" Fairy Queen," 204. 

Fane, Sir Francis, 6 n., 242. 

"Fatal Jealousie," 17, 32 n., 
69-71, 98 n., 101, 134, 164 n., 
177 n., 179 n., 180 n., 184-186, 
187 n., 188 n., 238. 

Fletcher, 205, 228. 

Garnett's " Age of Dryden," 
56, 232, 233, 234, 235, 237, ^0, 
244. 

Genest's " Some Account of the 
English Stage," 3, 9 n., 16, 



17, 19, 72, 74 n., 92 n., 110, 

143, 203, 232, 233, 234, 235, 

236, 237, 238, 239, 240, 241, 

242, 243, 244. 
Glanvil, Joseph, 184. 
"Gloriana," 238. 
Gosse's " Seventeenth Century 

Studies," 232, 236, 237, 241. 
Gould, Robert, 242. 
Grabue, 204. 
Granville, George: see Lord 

Lansdowne. 
Gray, Thomas, 110 n. 
"Great Favorite," 5, 32 n., 

99 n., 153, 162 n., 170 n., 176 

n., 208, 238. 
" Great Mogul : " see" Aureng- 

Zebe." 
Grove's " Dictionary of Music," 

195. 
Guarini, 228. 

"Hannibal's Overthrow": see 

" Sophonisba." 
Harris, 12 n. 
" Herod and Mariamne," 48 n., 

77, 97, 206, 239. 
Hennequin's "Art of Playwrit- 

ing," 12 n. 
"Henry III," 2, 25 n., 116 n., 

118, 145-147, 153, 157, 160- 

161 n., 164 n., 167 n., 168, 

188 n., 239. 
" Henry V " (Orrery's), 18, 36- 

37, 42, 79, 113 n., 116 n., 117 

n., 121 n., 130 n., 132 n., 135- 

137, 142, 143, 157, 163 n., 226- 

227, 239. 
" Henry V" (Shakespeare's), 

43, 225-226. 
" Herod the Great," 77, 97, 102- 

103, 123 n., 131 n., 162 n., 168 

n., 172 n., 181 n., 239. 



248 



INDEX 



" Heroick Love," 4, 27. 
Hettner, Hermann, 106 n. 
Hogarth's "Memoirs of the 

Opera," 11 n., 12 n., 196, 208, 

209, 244. 
Holliushead, 141. 
HoUi well's ' ' Dictionary of Old 

Plays," 205. 
Holzhausen's "Dryden's Hero- 

isches Drama," 34, 40 n., 54, 

81, 100, 106 n., 109 n., 162 n., 

173 n. 
Homer, 108, 109 n., 191. 
Hopkins, Charles, 144 n., 234. 
Howard, Sir Robert, 5n., 33, 

98 n., 125 n., 155, 238, 240, 

244. 
Hutchinson's " Witchcraft," 

184 n. 

"Ibrahim," 45 n., 77, 79, 87, 

105, 150 u., 206, 239. 
" Indian Emperor," 113 n., 114 

n., 124 n., 125 n., 126, 127 n., 

153, 208, 240. 
"Indian Queen," 125, 153, 155, 

208, 240. 
" Invasion of Naples by the 

French": see "Charles 

VIII." 
"Island Princess," 205. 
" Italian Husband," 29 n. 

Jacob's " Poetical Register," 
27-28, 29 n., 40 n., 232, 233, 
234, 237, 242, 244. 

Johnson, Dr. Samuel, 30, 237, 
244. 

Jonson, Ben, 195, 201, 206, 228. 

Killigrew, Sir William, 16 n. 
"King Arthur," 199-200, 204. 
"King Saul," 242. 



Knight's preface to John 

Downes, "Roscius Anglica- 

nus," 8n., 243. 
Koertiug's " Geschichte des 

Fransoschische Romans," 

109 n. 

"Lancashire Witches," 203. 

Langbaine's " Account of the 
English Dramatic Poets," 
3n., 8, 9n., 17, 19, 26, 52, 
92 n., 201, 203, 206, 232, 233, 
234, 235, 238, 237, 238, 239, 

240, 241, 242, 243. 
Langbaine's " Momus Trium- 

phans," 27 n. 
Langbaine and Gildon, 206, 232, 

233, 2.34, 242, 244. 
Laniere, Nicolo, 195. 
Lansdowne, Lord, 4 n., 27-28. 
Lee, Nathaniel, 153 n., 190, 238, 

241, 243. 

" Libertine," 19. 

Lock's " Macbeth," 195. 

Logan, W. H., 40 n., 72-74, 231. 

" Love in a Tub " : see " Comi- 
cal Revenge." 

" Loves of Oroondates and Sta- 
tira " : see " Rival Kings." 

" Love's Triumph," 34, 240. 

Lowell, J. R., 110 n., 188. 

Macaulay, T. B., 30. 

" Maiden Queen," 26 n., 40 n., 

46 n., 81-87, 240. 
Maidment, James, 40 n., 72-74, 

231. 
" Marcelia," 6, 17, 25 n., 68-69, 

98 n., 101, 118, 153, 154, 158, 

208, 241. 
Marlowe, 182— 
" Marriage-a-la-Mode," 17, 40 

n., 87, 154, 241. 



INDEX 



249 



" Married Beau," 15 n. 

" Midsummer Night's Dream," 

204. 
Milton's " Comus," 195. 
" Miser," 24 n. 
"Mock Tempest," 230. 
MoUeux, 204. 
Movmtfort, 12 n. 
"Mustaplia," 40 n., 77, 159, 

206, 241. 

** Nero," 241. 

"Noah's Flood," 205. 

Noel, Hon. Koden, 106 n., 232, 

233, 237. 
Nokes, 101. 

" Ormasdes," 16. 

*' Oroonoko," 56 n. 

Orrery, Earl of, 17 n., 18 n., 19 
n., 35, 37n., 39 n., 42, 52, 54, 
77 n., 102 n., 113 n., 121, 125 
n., 137, 138, 143, 149, 226, 228, 
233, 234, 239, 241, 244. 

"Othello," 71 n. 

Otway, Thomas, 40 n., 52, 56 u., 
106 n., 190, 232. 

"Paradise," 205. 

"Pastor Fido," 205. 

Payne, Henry Neville, 17 n., 

238. 
Pepys' Diary, 206, 234, 236, 238, 

239, 240, 241, 242, 243. 
Pepys, Samuel, 11, 81 n., 170 n. 
Pix, Mrs. Mary, 237. 
" Playhouse to be Let," 231. 
Pope, Alexander, 30, 188. 
Pordage, Samuel, 48 n., 97 n., 

137, 239, 243. 
Powell and Verbruggen, 204. 
'•Prophetess," 205. 



"Psyche," 200-201, 205, 207. 
" Psyche Debauch'd," 230. 
PurceU, Henry, 11, 195, 196, 
199, 200, 208, 209. 

Racine, 34. 

"Rape of the Lock," 188. 

Ravencroft, Edward, 29 n., 155 

n., 170. 
"Reformation," 228. 
"Rehearsal," 165, 166. 
" Richard III," 43, 153, 213-^ 2 * ' 
"Richelieu," 55 n. 
"Rival Kings," 22, 49, 99 n., 

112, 115 n., 138-139, 208, 242. 
"Rival Ladies," 14, 17, 154, 

242. 
"Rival Sisters," 242. 
" Roman Ladies " : see " Vestal 

Virgin." 
" Romeo and Juliet," 101. 
Rousseau, J. J., 56 n. 
"Royal Martyr": see "Ty- 
rannic Love." 
"Royal Union": see "Love's 

Triumph." 
Rymer, 3, 19, 30, 31, 190, 237. 
Rymer's " Tragedies of the 

Last Age," 26-30, 38-39. 

"Sacrifice," 6, 50 n., 76 n., 99 

n., 102 n., 114 n., 115 n., 

242. 
St. Andree, 207. 
Saintsbury, George, 196. 
Saintsbury's " Life of Dryden," 

10 n., 232, 233, 234, 240, 241, 

242, 244. 
Scott, Sir Walter, 196, 232, 233, 

234, 235, 237, 238, 240, 241, 

242, 244. 
"Secret Love": see "Maiden 

Queen." 



260 



INDEX 



Sedley, Sir Charles, 43, 54, 218, 

234. 
Settle Elkanah, 21, 25, 45, 79 

n., 152, 204, 205, 208, 230, 235, 

236, 237, 239. 
Shadwell, Thomas, 19 n., 24, 

106 n., 190, 201, 203, 205, 

207. 
Shakespeare, 42, 43, 45, 46, 47, 

53, m, 71, 140, 143, 153, 191, 
^ 195, 206, 213, 217, 225, 228. 
Shipman, Thomas, 2 n., 239. 
" Siege of Babylon," 90 n., 97, 

104 n., 173 n., 206, 243. 
"Siege of Memphis," 26 n., 

48 n., 92-96, 99 n., 115, 122 n., 

123 n., 152, 172 n., 174 n., 208, 

243. 
" Siege of Rhodes," 2, 7-9, 119- 

120, 124 n., 125 n., 162 n., 195, 

204, 243. 
" Sophonisba," 40 n., 153, 243. 
" Spanish Friar," 65 n. 
" State of Innocence," 40 n., 

151 n., 196, 205, 244. 
Stephen, Sir Leslie, 169. 
Stow, 141. 
Suetonius, 74, 75. 

Talfourd, T. N., 30 n. 
Tasso, 30, 108, 109 n., 191, 228. 
Tate, N., 204. 
" Tempest," 205. 



Trapp, Rev. Joseph, 242. 
"Treacherous Friend": see 

" Marcelia." 
"Tryphon," 37, 77-79, 103-104, 

116 n., 117 n., 130 n., 206, 244. 
" Tyrannic Love," 40 n., 49 n., 

76 n., 112 n., 153, 176 n., 186 

n., 208, 244. 

Verhruggen : see Powell. 

"Vestal Virgin," 39 n., 98 n 
153, 244. 

Villiers, George: see Duke of 
Buckingham. 

" Violence of Love " : see "Ri- 
val Sisters." 

* ' Virgin Martyr " : sec " Tyran- 
nic Love." 

Waller, 3 n. 

Warburton, 143. 

Ward's "History of English 
Dramatic Literature," 4, 8 n., 
14 n., 15 n., 16 n., 17, 40 n., 
73 n., 102 n., 202, 209, 232, 
233, 234, 235, 236, 237, 238, 
239, 240, 241, 242, 243, 244. 

West's "Laureates of Eng- 
land," 106 n. 

Weston, John, 17 n., 49, 233. 

Whitaker, M., 77 n., 236. 

" World in the Moon," 204, 206. 

Wright's "Historia Histrion- 
ica," 12 n., 202. 



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